[dexen]

As far as wikipedia can be trusted, there are explicit rigits to privacy & secrecy of correspondence [1] in western countries.

The examples you give fail flat out -- mechanical sorting & filtering of email, without any direct human intervention -- has no way of breaking privacy. No person learns anything private, and nobody will ever get pestered by the spam filters of google or other such.

Also, there's no crates of illegal drugs there being moved around. There is opaque electronic correspondence. Paper correspondence is by default secret, unless interceped by law enforcement officials under court order. No provisions out there for private parties for wildcard checks if their rights are infriged somehow by paper mail -- and you can be sure every now and then somebody slanders someone in paper mail. Rumors and whatnot.

The point of the article is, why are there blatant double standards when it comes to electronic correspondence?

EDIT: also note the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katz_v._United_States

In short, ``[[SCOTUS interpreted the Fourth Amendment]] to count [[also]] immaterial intrusion with technology as a search''.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secrecy_of_correspondence