Snooping in the 21st Century

I used to have my boyfriend’s password to his e-mail account which he voluntarily gave, until I became snoopy and made arguments over harmless discoveries. It was his opinion that even if I had access to his mail, that didn’t give me the right to pry. He jokingly said that he could sue me narrating the case of Zulueta v. CA [G.R. 107383, February 20, 1996] wherein the wife forcibly opened the drawers of her husband and found 157 documents of her husband and his alleged paramours (consisting mostly of greeting cards, diaries and photographs). The Supreme Court held that these were inadmissible in evidence since they violated the privacy of communication and correspondence. She was unable to use these for her legal separation case. I had to disagree; our situation was not on all fours. First, there was no action against the wife in the case, she was just prohibited from using the documents. Second, privileged communication is applicable to spouses, which we are not. Third, I didn’t find any letters to paramours, thank God. I had no plans of using the documents as evidence to anything. Lastly, he relayed his email password to me; it’s not as if I hacked into his account akin to “forcibly opening his drawers”. He gave me a key, I had no other choice but to use it to open the account. Oh, the wonders of technology.