One should be, at the very least, cognizant of an international intelligence arrangement, referred to as the Five Eyes; this is the basis of a few other arrangements of like manner. We maintain that the reader should understand the basic implications of these arrangements with respect to one's Internet privacy and security.
Take this article with the proverbial grain of salt: it can be construed as grasping speculation.
The Five Eyes is an arrangement between the five countries: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, by which these countries can be considered as "allied" in sharing digital intelligence (to combat "terrorism", have advance warning of events, etc.). This is factual. Another arrangement, dubbed the Nine Eyes, which includes the five aforementioned countries, in addition to Denmark, France, the Netherlands and Norway- is a factual arrangement. The Fourteen Eyes (which was leaked and described by Mr. Edward Snowden, so it is a purported thing) includes the same members as the Nine Eyes, in addition to Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden.
Knowledge of this necessarily leads to some lenient rules regarding privacy:
We believe that Switzerland offers the most privacy-respecting basis for Internet applications; and additionally many Web applications can be found hosted there. There are other non-Eyes countries that one can find Internet refuge in. We cannot deduce for certain if the existence of Eyes arrangements presents real privacy concerns to the reader. Most non-Eyes applications are hosted in second-world nations, and as such one may be justified in fearing the selling of one's information to third parties, or even back to first-world conspirators. We recommend that the reader simply understand the possible implications of these Eyes arrangements, and plan accordingly.