Not Reliable: Read Receipts are not a reliable way to know if a message has been read. For example, if sent an email message and wanted a Read Receipt, the following “Disposition-Notification-To” header would be added: Disposition-Notification-To: When the recipient first opens the message, the recipient’s email program may see this header and send a special “Delivery Notification” email back to the address When gets this notification, they know the message has been read. Sending: Read Receipts are implemented by adding a special “Header” to the headers area of the outbound email message (See: Viewing the Message Source / Full Headers of an Email). Most email programs, like Outlook, Thunderbird, and LuxSci WebMail, allow Read Receipts to be added to email messages and allow senders to choose if recepts are sent “never,” “on-demand,” or “always.” Read Receipts are requests attached to an email message by the sender.
This article explains how to determine if a message is read, shows how each method works and discusses the pros and cons. It also allows for message retraction (removing further access to an email message). LuxSci’s SecureLine Escrow service includes a 100% reliable Read Receipt function that can be used when it is essential to know if someone has read a message.
Spammers use techniques such as HTML “ web bug” tracking to see if you have read an email message and thus if your email address is valid and ripe for more spamming this is also unreliable. Typically, this is done by requesting a “Read Receipt” when sending the message. Customers often ask how they can know if a specific recipient has read a message.