&gt; The key issue here is the definition of authorized access. If you create a contract with your employer whereby they give you money and you authorize them to access your digital communications (via an explicit policy) then their access is not unauthorized.<p>Yes, for example the corporate gmail terms of use explicitly states that your employer has rights to any communications contained therein.<p>But I would be extremely surprised if someone logging into their personal Gmail account at work would constitutes a &#x27;right&#x27; for an employer to access that account (and potentially look through years of personal correspondence) to verify that they were &quot;completing their professional task&quot; - essentially access without authorization (at least in the pre-internet days where these would have been physical letters) would have equated to theft of personal property.