More than one person has received a nasty shock in the past month when the contents of private emails and texts or correspondence from various social media accounts has been leaked.

There have been arguments that some of these leaks were in the public interest.

Barry Spurr's emails, for example, demonstrated to many why the Sydney university professor was a questionable choice in setting a nationwide curriculum.

How the emails were received by independent online publication New Matilda is still unknown, but in the fallout for Professor Spurr, the method was hardly relevant. The damage was done.

Red-faced this week was Northern Territory Senator Nova Peris.

Lengthy exchanges between the former Olympian and Trinidad and Tobago sprinter Ato Boldon were revealed in all their glory by News Ltd.

The emails were released under the pretext that Senator Peris allegedly used public money to fund an extramarital affair with Boldon.

Her office had refused to confirm the veracity of the emails by the deadline of this column, but if they're found to be legitimate, the consequences will be severe.

In both situations, these emails have served to remove the safety of a public mask to reveal a racist, or a sexist, or someone keen on having sex with someone who isn't their husband.

For years, people in the public eye have been forced to accept their lives are essentially open slather.

Does - and should - this extend to private communication?

I'm not totally convinced that both of the leakages were warranted.

I read Professor Spurr's emails in horror, and at last check, he was rightly suspended from the university.

His disturbing emails were distributed from a university account.

Undoubtedly, his behaviour would be against the university's communications policy and, once seen by the public, they could not be forgotten or dismissed.

Senator Peris's had me squirming in discomfort, but the contents of media reports seemed much more gratuitous than simple concern that the taxpayers' dollar had been wasted.

Both Boldon and Senator Peris have denied "any wrongdoing".

Regardless, I hold firmly to the belief that private correspondence should remain private unless it is morally wrong to leave it otherwise.

Senator Peris put it well. "The highs and lows of my athletic career - and now political career - are public," she said. "The highs and lows of my private life are matters for me and my family."

What would happen if your emails were leaked?

As Guardian columnist Brigid Delaney said in response: "But who has clean hands when it comes to email? Or Gchat? or Facebook messages?

"What if these leaks are only the start of it? What if they spark a trend of email leakage?

"After all, it only takes a 'friend' to forward a particularly juicy email into the wrong hands for us to be 'Spurred'?"

Humour me.

Think of the contents of the last email you sent, or the last instant message, or text, or Snapchat, or Facebook inbox.

Now imagine everyone can see it.

Happy Halloween.