E-mail is a private thing, which many people do not want other people to read and become very secretive about, as do people when they are surfing the net. Its an escape out of the ‘real world’ etc etc. But should other people be able to read your private e-mails?

Well, it’s the same thing as should other people be able to view your medical records and monitor your phone calls. Doctors receptionists often have to read medical notes on people, and that doesn’t bother us to much, well not me anyway.

I think companies should be able to read personal e-mail. Afterall, you are in the workplace, you are using the companies machines and they are probably paying you for what your writing in a personal e-mail while your supposed to be working. The employer should be allowed to know if his machines are being used for purposes in which they shouldn’t be, afterall, he/she could loose their business. Workers may not like this, but they do go home and most probably have private machines there in which they can write their e-mails and keep themselves to themselves. So yes to companies being able to read private e-mails.

The government however is another thing. Why should they be allowed to look at what we are writing. They already know nearly everything else about us, we pay our taxes etc, so why should they be able to read our personal e-mails? They are not allowed to open a letter that we have sent and start reading it just to see what it says are they? So what is so different about e-mails which makes them think that they can do this? If they do decide they can read our e-mails it will just decrease use on the internet and not promote it, and believe me, we need it promoting in this country, what with BT already stopping us from using it as much as we would like too.

I think we already have enough people knowing enough about us. We should be allowed private e-mails, but, using our own personal machines. If used on
someone else machines in their home or workplace, then I think that they should have the right to know what you are writing about, afterall, THEY could get charged if you are using their computers for illegal purposes, leaving the offender to walk away scot free.