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<br> <br><p>It turns out that the U.S. government has been using the Stored Communications Act (SCA) to read private e-mails without a search warrant.</p><br><br> <br><br><br><br> <br><p>Photo courtesy Dreamstime</p><br><br> <br><br><br><br> <br><p>In April 2004, Google launched Gmail, an invitation-only version of its e-mail service. At the time, Gmail offered 1 gigabyte of storage space, an amount that seemed impossibly generous compared to the 2, 4 or 10 megabytes offered by many other popular e-mail providers. While Gmail was not the first e-mail provider to grant its users so much storage space, it was the most prominent. With its characteristic panache and intuitive interface, Gmail took off and eventually opened to all users around the world.</p><br><br> <br><br><br><br> <br><p>Google's competitors followed suit, as e-mail service providers began engaging in a mini-electronic arms race of ever-increasing storage capacity. Yahoo a