I remembered the discussions surrounding it when it was first released. Here's one submission on Slashdot that discussed the email scanning: https://slashdot.org/story/04/04/25/1438250/googles-gmail-go...

Here's one comment on slashdot: [0].

I have to laugh at this one [1]. It almost seems reversed these days (not quite, but kinda)

I'll see if I can dig up any press releases or official Google communications about it, but with linkrot what it is, it may take a while. (EDIT: Here's Google's privacy policy when Gmail was released [2])

[0] https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=105335&cid=8965115

[1] https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=105335&cid=8965194

[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20040404134002/http://gmail.goog...