This is scary stuff. I don't appreciate *any* 3rd party reading MY email. That's just bogus. I haven't used Hotmail in four years because their EULA says they can read your email without permission and even SELL your business ideas if they find them in your emails, without giving you compensation! If you don't believe me about their EULA, read it yourself!
Now I can imagine Google will be a little more responsible, but I'm not one to put it past them.
The only 3rd party that can read my email is the NSA, and I'm okay with that. I live in Canada so I'm not sure if it goes through them. They're just checking for terrorist talk, anyways.