Meanwhile, many members wondered why they were being ignored. The other concern is security. On commercial services, E-mail is as secure as the US Mail, I like to say. Of course, the service's security department can intercept. So can the US Postal Inspector.
Commercial services apply by policy much the same rules as the law applies to postal inspectors.
These services run a bank of mainframes that users access through a data network. Security is tightly controlled. On Internet, Fidonet and other packet systems, messages are sent from one computer to another until they are relayed to their destination. For this reason, E-mail on packet systems is frequently encrypted. Organizations, any organizations, with an internal E-mail system may well consider they own the contents as well as the system itself.