Wow, what kind of workplace did you work in?
Here in Germany I think gathering many of these facts would simply be illegal.
Here in Germany I think gathering many of these facts would simply be illegal.
That said, when I have worked outside the region or in less regulated positions - the intrusion into particularly email and written communications is the exact same. When you leave an organisation in particular, you do reflect on how big a trail of information you have left behind in their hands.
This is also exactly why I always check all the paperwork for "personal usage" of the devices and services provided by the company (email and stuff). If there is nothing about it, I send my mom a random cat picture from my work email (always outside of office hours, in other cases it could be a contract violation). Why? Because if it's not forbidden, you are implicitly allowed to and after at least one private message was sent by the account, it's legally like a private account.
If your employer snoops in the account, it's a massive privacy violation (Datenschutzgesetz and DSGVO/GDPR) and a strong case in employment law. Never needed it, but it's better to be safe than sorry.
I dont think I have ever worked under an IT policy that was anything but 'for work use only' - although that didnt stop me from taking great pleasure at seeing how many work emails were used to sign up for sugardaddie etc whenever they leaked. I was never too fussed - having two phones, two emails, two laptops etc doesn't bother me in the slightest. You lose access to the work phone number / email / storage when you leave anyway so it's really of no use.
I have even come to like the physical separation of work and personal, there are times each needs more than 50% of my attention.