Yes it ' s true , it ' s not easy since a foreign legal request is granted on a case by case basis by a Swiss authority . A few years ago this Swiss procedure had FBI agents working on site meaning in Switzerland to process requests faster . I don ' t know if this is still the case . You can google the following since most references are the actual laws in . pdf form Switzerland and united states International Mutual Assistance in Criminal MattersYou can replace the unites states part with another country to see if a treaty exists . The exact law which governs the email provider is called Federal Act on the Surveillance of Postal and Telecommunications Traffic 2002 . This was just ratified in 2015 and passed , see the link below . p u b l i c b a c k l a w e x p a ndingsurveillancepowersPS . This is all irrelevant because your route is likely to go through prism anyhow unless your directly plugged into the server and sitting in the swiss warehouse . And what good is encryption if they have the keys .