Occasional Observations

Remember when Microsoft first added the option to confirm or deny a "return receipt" on an email? Until then, it was possible to ask for an automatic receipt when the mail was opened, on most software clients I'd ever used (all the way from QED departmental email in 1991). The addition of a dialog box asking if I'd like to send a return receipt changed that.

Now ReadNotify has changed it again. They're able to track messages, and PDF file attachments, as they're delivered, opened, forwarded and deleted. What's more is that it also tracks when the flagged message is opened by people to whom it was forwarded - although it doesn't reveal email addresses.

That's not all - the service also mines information about the user's PC, system language, and even reports the IP address from which they picked up the mail. Email really does leave digital fingerprints everywhere.

Maybe resorting to the fax is a good idea after all.

# posted by Nesjo : 11:29