virtually SPY PROOF LAPTOP now available

[Magda Hassan]

If one were to encrypt things in the HDD on the fly, then it really would be secure.

Most Linux OS variants are very good at encryption. You can encrypt the whole hard drive or particular folders. Maybe Mac and Windows can do this too these days but I don't see the point in encrypting an already compromised system.

One either has to do a LOT of research or rely on others who have. Learning how to encrypt emails and other communications is another step that must be learned for secure messages.

Yes, learn from others. Here is a good start https://prism-break.org/en/ Those involved in this area are aware not every one is a computer guru so they are designing more and more for general users.
PGP or GPG is available as an add on to Thunderbird mail client. And there are good videos on it in various places. https://securityinabox.org/en/guide/thunderbird/windows

Getting rid of or lessening the use of your smartphone is another step.

Give the iPhone a complete miss. Mozilla, who take your privacy seriously and use open source software, now have their own Operating System for mobile phones https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/os/1.3/ And very affordable too. Or you can get an Android. Then de Googlefy it and strip out the operating system and install clean open source for you phone model here: https://download.cyanogenmod.org/ or here: http://www.replicant.us/supported-devices.php and get your apps from here: https://f-droid.org/ or you can still have a Google Play add on for the new software above. Also there are whole suites of software designed by cryptogeeks https://whispersystems.org/ and https://guardianproject.info/ They are easy to use and install even non geeks.