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There's a horrid and eroding legal concept called a "reasonable expectation of privacy."

Unfortunately, it is not referred to in the positive in most cases. On the contrary, it is invoked in the negative based on some legal precedent that eliminates that "reasonable expectation."

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I've long wondered if there isn't a potential legal hack hiding there: Providers that advertise an expectation of privacy, webmail with a "This is a private message" checkbox, those (generally pointless) email footers that clarify that the message is intended for its recipient only, etc. (IANAL...)

Obviously, in the current court system it wouldn't do much good on its own, but it could form the backbone of a single precedent-setting case.

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