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Under what laws would it be illegal? I think it is completely reasonable for a company to have access to all data on company-provided accounts, so long as the employees aren't mislead into thinking it is private.

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I don't know for the rest of the world, but in France you can indicate your mail being private by adding a prefix to the subject of your mail with "Privé". Then the "secrecy of correspondence"[1] apply. Some company restrict the usage of private messages using the company-provided mail, but it is not the default case.

The company cannot access those messages without your consent or without a suspicion of a crime (like a leak of data).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secrecy_of_correspondence

Source in French with some court's judgement : https://www.arobase.org/entreprise/email-personnel.htm

This is a big difference between Europe and US. I think different European countries require different levels of strictness -- it may be employer isn't allowed to even track who are the correspondents, let alone reading the email contents.

It is regulated in Europe, not banned. In general, employers can read your email, they just have to do it a certain way.

Here's a guide for UK employers:

https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/2-107-4386?transi...

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