Proof of Receipt of e-mails
 

Only marginally related to travel but I trust you guys only!

Question is about services like www.readnotify.com and other similar companies that let you know when email you've sent gets read etc.

Here's the question: Is this service detectable by the recipients? Is there a way that a (sufficiently sophisticated) recipient can know in advance that the sender seeks verification and to bypass it? The companies claim that this info is not viewable to the recipient, but, for everything there is a way to do, right?
So, when I send an e-mail to an airline (personal e-mail account) and I tag it in order to know if it was read or not, is there a way for them to see/know it in advance and hence not open it, or make it look like they didn't (the report I would get from e.g. "readnotify" would be "not opened yet")?

Thank you!

I'm guessing the email gets sent out as HTML, with an external image in the email that is located on readnotify.com. The image is given a unique name, so that when the image is requested by the email client, that confirms receipt.

I think you could get around this by not displaying images in emails, but I'm sure readnotify has figured out a way around this.

I read my mail in an old-fashioned text-based program (mutt). I am quite certain that it would not trigger any notification to the sender.

ReadNotify puts a read receipt request in the header:

Notice-Requested-Upon-Delivery-To:[email protected]

Most email clients and webmail clients will prompt you before sending a read receipt, except some old versions of Outlook.

They also put some images and sounds in the email. Again, most clients are configured to block external content unless you turn it on:

<img
src=http://www.o5htrp62cnbl18.ReadNotify.com/nocache/o5htrp62cnbl18/footer0.gif>

<BgSound src=https://tssls.o5j6tpo7cnbl7v.ReadNotify.com/nocache/o5j6tp07cnbl7v/rspr47.wav>

<td background=http://0320.185.27565/nocache/o5j6tpo7cnbl7v/rspr7q.gif>

Thanks a lot for your replies!

I am not sure I get it entirely (in fact i'm a non-techie and all that sounds strange). readnotify, claim that the sender sees nothing. I have checked it myself with an alernate e-mail address and indeed, I was not prompted to give any permission to notify the sender.

Is there a way to open (e.g.) gmail with a primitive text-based program (as HomelessScientist does? Sorry for my ...primitive (and stupid) questions but I really have no clue how these things work!

Thanks again!
A.

There really isn't a way around it; in my email client I only view local content, it doesn't pull anything remotely so there is no way services like this will work on me.

Same here.

I also have the "Never Send a Return Receipt" turned on in Pegasus Mail.

You could have gmail auto-forward a copy of your emails to another pop3 mail account and then download it to a text-based client.

It is also possible to fetch gmail directly with a pop3 text-client but there are some very specific settings you have to use in your email client to make it work.

Scott, do you, however, get to know whether a sender requests (either directly or indirectly through this service) for a return receipt?

I can tell if there is any such request, direct or indirect in an email.
it could either be in an email, or an embedded URL (image, sound etc...)
All you need to do is view the message source and detailed header.
If you know what to look for, you'll know.

Currently none of my email tools will notify the sender (or any service)
that i've opened a message.
I dont use any web based email service.

Thanks.
Since, compared to most pop3 accounts I'm aware of, gmail has a huge quota, what happens if the e-mail sent to my gmail account fails to be forwarded to my pop3 because its over quota?

Is it true that text based clients avoid services like readnotify?

How 'bout if you, say, just open your e-mail without viewing the message source before? I guess then you lost, right?

It would bounce back if you are over quota. and it depends on
the text based tools. Most of them are capable of
autonotify, but you have to either manually turn them on or off
os say "yes" or "no" when prompted.

for GUI, I recommend thunderbird (www.mozilla.com) its very safe and
you can configure it to ignore inline images, links etc...
and you can configure it to prompt you for auto notification.

Nope.. tools I use never send out such request before prompting. And
inline viewing of the images or links or pop-ups is turned off.

Thanks cpx