[Mannaggia l'America]

I used to administer an email server (Linux) on the side as a volunteer at my children's Catholic school.

The core of email protocols (SMTP, POP3, IMAP) and storage is all plain ASCII text, and all easily readable. As an admin with root access, I could easily read anyone's email with little effort.

[JRandomFreeper]

Encrypted mail servers don't work that way.

/johnny

[Gene Eric]

>> As an admin with root access, I could easily read anyone’s email with little effort.

The contents can be encrypted using common algorithms; methods no ordinary admin can crack.