A new survey reveals that quite a few corporations are reading emails of workers, supposedly on the look-out for inadvertent releases of information:

E-mail security is an important issue for most companies because leaks have many competitive and regulatory implications. The Internet makes it possible for leaked information to travel quickly and be replicated endlessly. Sensitive trade secrets or internal strategy information is highly vulnerable to third-party interception and abuse. Companies also have to contend with the risk of falling afoul of complex privacy laws intended to protect confidential information about customers and employees.

It’s hard to wrap my head around this, but when I’ve worked with sensitive information, usually only my boss knew what I knew was sensitive and confidential. So would a general screener know it was confidential? I don’t think so. Sigh. I guess this could mean anyone is reading. It’s just a matter of luck (or supervision) at any given time.