On the other hand, courts have held that private organizations may look at e-mail within their own networks. Many companies argue they do this for the same reasons they might monitor phone calls-to improve customer service, to investigate crime, or to prevent security breaches. People have argued the merits of both sides of this issue. In the meantime, employees and system users should ask to see the privacy policy of their company. Even if privacy is company policy, users should never assume it exists.
Unauthorized access can and does take place.
When something calls for absolute privacy, use another medium. The issue of e-mail ownership has other ethical ramifications that might go under the heading of attribution. Electronically, a letter can pass through multiple public or private machines before it arrives at its destination and there's no evidence if it has been opened by someone else. The issues raised by these e-mail characteristics range from forgery to anonymity to simply giving proper credit. Perhaps the best solution in questions of attribution lies in merely considering them.