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There is no getting away from ad targeting, whether or not you use Gmail. You are still tracked by Google, Facebook, and many others as long as you interact with the Internet. For example, every store you purchase something from online gathers information and uses it and sells it, along with your bank, your credit card companies, every forum you sign up for, your car loan company, insurance, newsletters, social media, etc. etc. The main way to avoid seeing ads is to use ad blockers, but if you don't you will see ads targeted towards your profile that may or may not include information from Gmail's services. I have experimented blocking as much as I could and I just see crappier ads--really scammy stuff. If I just use Gmail normally I don't see any ads within Gmail but I do have slightly better targeted advertising. As to security, Gmail is really good at it, and I think many people are fooling themselves that their small email provider has anywhere near the same level of security. That is more important to me--I don't want a hacker to be able to break into my email account, or steal all the passwords from some unsecured database. Billions of users are testing this security at Gmail every day, but with a small email provider you have no way of knowing if someone isn't sitting in their basement reading your emails for kicks.
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