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That does not really cover it as all FUTURE people are listening as well. Time has a funny way of obliterating context.

Similar advice that was given to me during a messy legal fight'; Assume that anything you put in an email might one day be read out to you in court.

Or better yet start using OTR on these services and verify the "key" on each end before continuing to talk about private matters.

That doesn't account for the times the receiver decrypts your communication and then intentionally makes it public.

There's a deep wisdom to the idea that one ought not put into words that which they wouldn't want the world to see... Once it's out of your head, your ability to control it diminishes if not outright vanishes... Just say'n is all..

I think my life would be considerably worse if I had been treating all e-communication with my girlfriend as though it was public.

It has yet to hurt me.

I'm pretty sure that in Gmail, delete actually means delete.