I understand your point. However, this is the modern way of physically handing $10 bucks you owe to your friend. Similarly, a private e-mail, which is now scanned and indexed by the government along with everyone else's e-mail, is the modern equivalent of sending snail mail 50 years ago, in which there was 0% chance any higher power would have read and catalogued your letter.

We shouldn't have to live in the past because the government takes advantage of technological progress with massive power grabs. The potential for devastating abuse is so great. Imagine how this power would have been abused over the past century, if it existed then.