From FM's security statement:
https://www.fastmail.fm/help/overview_security.html
We see this quote which FM copied from HM's site:
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when using Hushmail, users can be assured that no access to data, including server logs, etc., will be granted without a specific court order. Smith also says that it only accepts court orders issued by the British Columbia Supreme Court and that non-Canadian cops have to make a formal request to the Canadian government whose Justice Department then applies, with sworn affidavits, for a court order."
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FM attempts to counter this by saying:
Quote:
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A similar requirement applies to FastMail.FM, and as our terms of service state, we won't release any data without the required legal authorisation.
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"Legal authorization" is essentially meaningless where FM's servers are based. So the protection in the two services are not similar in the slightest.
Moreover, HM's service requires substantially more effort on their part to disclose a clients email. HM staff must wait for a user to login next (and there's a chance that may never happen), and then they have to sniff the password. It would also be much easier for a rogue FM employee to read past messages.