Recommend an email system?

I'm getting fed up with Gmail's increasing ridiculousnesses (the latest being some kind of inescapable auto-redirect to an advertisement... for Gmail - when I'm trying to sign in); recommendations for other email options would be very welcome!

Things I really want in an email service:
+ ability to tag emails for searching
+ threading 'conversations' like Gmail does
+ NO continual introduction of new features that nobody wants (like the recent "Categories" shenanigans Gmail has put everyone through)
+ privacy policy better than Google's "we record everything, give us your personal data!" (So, possibly based somewhere outside the U.S. and its absurd levels of nonprotection laws.)

It'd also be nice if it:
- didn't continually ask me to provide personal, RL info (can you tell I hate Gmail's persistence in asking for my phone number? Even pickup artists aren't this persistent, Google!)
- didn't have a terribly long url
- is easy to create multiple accounts with
- allowed me to import everything in my Gmail account


Thank you all!