[rurban]

That's not true. According to US interpretation of law they may scan every IMAP mail which was not deleted. So in their analogy any book in a public or cooperate museum may be scanned, there is no privacy protection.

Only in democratic countries you can expect some privacy.

[bhickey]

Mail and e-mail are legally distinct.

[keyjsgnsgdgn]

That is false.

https://consumerist.com/2013/07/03/forget-the-nsas-hi-tech-s...

[wodenokoto]

This article is related to scanning the outside of snail mail and is not relevant for the discussion at hand.

[novaleaf]

wow! a rebuttal of a rebuttal, of a rebuttal, of a rebuttal! =D

[bhickey]

Note that I didn't say "You have absolute privacy in postal mail." The two have different legal protections, and those on snail mail are incontrovertibly stronger.

[sp332]

You have to leave the mail sitting for a certain amount of time, at which point it falls under the "abandoned" part and can be picked up without a warrant. Unfortunately they didn't interpret email being read as being picked up, since it's still sitting in the server.