There’s been a webmail service that tried to do just this
in the past. Unfortunately, they were also successfully
compelled to turn over cleartext emails (or passphrases,
which produce cleartext) to the government. ...
It wouldn't just break IMAP, POP, and search; it would also break the cooler new stuff like Inbox Actions and Google Now.
Is it either privacy or usability?!
It's fundamentally an issue with the law: if they can't even feature FISA orders in their transparency report then their hands are pretty much tied. One could only hope that these reports will result in a change in the law itself.
