Ignoring the dubious baseline assumption that your data really is at risk of exposure, why do you think what you're proposing would make you safer rather than put you at more risk?The thing is Justin, right now we don't know for sure just what Google hands over to the Feds and why, and we're all grappling with whether the alternatives are worth the convenience trade-off. I know I am.
You still need to actually home your servers somewhere, which means a colo or VPS that is subject to the exact same laws.
I don't live in the US so no, I'm not subject to the exact same laws. Similar yes, but I don't have to worry about the DMCA for instance. Of course if I do want to use AWS or App Engine then yes, it applies. But I've always assumed that foreign hosted servers can and will be compromised or spied on.
Do you expect the providers of those services to have the capability to fight such requests better than Google, given that Google has a full time legal team dedicated to doing so?
And that legal team has been forbidden to communicate with customers about certain information requests made by Federal agencies. Not much of an advantage is it? Do you guys really get on the phone with your customers and tell them when their data has been handed over? Come to think of it, do you ever speak to customers at all? I can get all of these things with a local provider outside US jurisdiction.
What about the basic security of the provider itself? Do you really expect that to be anywhere near the level of what Google provides on its own systems? To top it all off, there's the maintenance and securing of whatever you're actually running, which requires significant expertise and takes quite a bit of time if you don't want your box popped and turned into a zombie host (which is what is most likely to happen).
If you can't do something like this yourself, or don't have time, then you pay a professional to do it, either by hiring or by outsourcing. It's just business: create a relationship with expected levels of service with people you trust 100% and then pay them what it's worth. You seem to think that not using Google only means having to roll your own when in fact there are many alternatives.
My point here is that you're not being honest with yourself if you really think you can manage this as a side project better than the full-time teams at Google do. If you want to pick another provider of email, etc, then investigate carefully and find one you're happy with. But I'd strongly discouraging running your own services.
If you don't want to spied on, then you absolutely must run your own services. When the feudal lords start fighting or not taking their responsibilities seriously, it's us peasants that get trampled. Perhaps more of us need to move outside the feudal system and help others that also want to.