I agree. I think there’s a huge difference between sending an email to somebody over which you lose control vs. outright selling out yourself to some megacorp. It’s not what my friend does with my email that has me worried. It’s what his/her provider does with it.
The embarrassment of Joyce’s grandson is IMHO nothing compared to his fate once companies the likes of Google and Facebook own all his personal data.
If others don’t see that hazard and prefer to use “free” stuff, that’s fine with me. But I’m not touching any of that with a stick. And I won’t be coerced into using any of those “services” either. AFAIC the government can regulate the heck out of that sector. Those companies have shown time and again that they’re ruthless and unwilling to be reasonable or respectful. Remember, “Do no harm”. 
The whole reason I think it’s worth going on about this is that in this case fortunately, we do have an alternative. If instead of the “free” gmail you use the already-paid-for iCloud you can rest assured that Apple is not doing anything nefarious with your emails. Yes, I’m sure there are a gazillion features and doohickeys that gmail offers and iCloud doesn’t, and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that gmail’s uptime is 99.99999% while iCloud’s only 99.9%. But to me personally, that’s worth retaining control over what is mine. Of course, YMMV.