New York Penal Law Article 250 (Offenses Against the Right to Privacy: Eavesdropping and Unlawful Surveillance) 250.25: 250.25 Do not open or read sealed private communications, divulge their contents, or extract or disclose the contents of telephone communications from carrier staff

Tampering with private communications, a class B misdemeanour, is committed by opening or reading a sealed letter or any other sealed private message knowing neither sender nor receiver has agreed; passing on what was read; extracting from a carrier's employee, by connivance, deception, intimidation or otherwise, details of what a telephone or telegraph message contained or was about; or, as a carrier employee, divulging such contents. Law enforcement acting under section 250.35 is excepted.