There are many alternatives services for email.

• ProtonMail - Founded by former CERN scientists, the place where the Net was born. Review and Setup Guide
• Tutanota
• Posteo - Paid, in euros, so maybe not available to everyone everywhere
• Clean Email - Great service for email filtering
• Paid, no ads
• Hushmail - Secure solution for corporations
• Mail Fence - Been around since 1999! They take privacy for real reals
• Runbox
• POP, IMAP explained and more here
• Extensive List of New Email Projects