In scenarios 1 and 3, your intention is to spy on people to gain an advantage over them in legal proceedings. That's going to qualify as "malicious" from their perspective.
You think having a transactional log to stop people from lying in court is a bad thing and has me doing harm? What unfair, malicious gain do I receive by being able to present evidence that says that someone did in fact read correspondence?
Respectfully, you’re in a very small camp there. You might as well call security footage or fingerprint evidence malicious as well. The same goes for snail mail that has delivery confirmation.
If anything, this thread has just reinforced my belief that I’m doing the right thing.
In scenarios 1 and 3, your intention is to spy on people to gain an advantage over them in legal proceedings. That's going to qualify as "malicious" from their perspective.