Privacy INVADED: I need some advice

[Shawnco]

Hello,

I've been using Gmail for quite some time now and have been quite
satisfied. However, I am now looking for a way to block, trash, or
somehow ignore mail sent to me with a read receipt request from Outlook
users.
I use Outlook at work (it's great) but I never send read receipts
because I feel that I would be invading the privacy of my email
recipients.

I don't want to have to read all of my Gmail messages in plain text,
but if that is the only way to stop the prying eyes of other senders, I
guess I'll do it.

When a read receipt request is sent from Outlook is there any specific
coding in the message that would make it identifiable? If so, would it
be possible to set up a filter in my Gmail account to immediately trash
or spam those messages?

I ask for a solution to this problem because I get such a large amount
of personal email each day that if I were to respond in a timely
fashion to each one -I would never get anything done.

Many thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Reading email in plain text has *absolutely nothing* to do with read
receipts.

You mention using outlook at work - but you don't mention if you are using
Outlook to read your gmail or just want to prevent other outlook users from
sending read receipt requests to you.

You can't control what others do... Does Gmail honor read receipts and if
so, do they have a way to disable the acceptance?

if you are using Outlook, which version? Outlook 2002 and 2003 allow you to
choose various receipt options. Older versions have fewer configuration
options available.

 

[Shawnco]

I apologize for not being clear.

I mentioned the fact that I use Outlook at work because I wanted to
make people aware that I do like Outlook and what it can do. I'm not
an Outlook basher, far from it -I rely on it.

When at home I do not use Outlook simply because I do not have a need
for it. I log on to my Gmail accounts with my cable internet
connection on my PC in a very vanilla way.

You mentioned that viewing email messages in plain text has nothing to
do with read receipt, may I ask if you know what the logistics behind
that functionality are?

As far as I can tell Gmail does honor the receipts and the only clue
I've gotten so far about how to deal with them is to find some
discriminating line of code with which to create a filter for read
receipt messages.

Thanks for your timely response earlier.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

I did a quick test with my gmail account and have not received a read
receipt back from gmail.

 

[Shawnco]

Hmm, okay.

I have gotten responses before from Outlook users that they have
received read receipts. Additionally, I sent myself a read receipt
from my Outlook 2003 to my Gmail account and did get a read receipt
notification back in Outlook. Strange.

As I said before, thank you for your response, and if you could
elaborate on the read receipt functionality (how Outlook knows if I've
read a message) I would be so grateful.

In hindsight, perhaps this is the question I should have asked in my
first post:
When Outlook sends a read receipt request in an email message: what is
it, where is it located, and what can I do to identify it?

 

[Shawnco]

Any more thoughts or ideas?

 

[BillR [MVP]]

Gmail won't send a receipt directly. If you access your gmail account via
POP3 in Outlook then Outlook will control read receipts for that session.
You can control those receipts via Tools | Options | Preferences tab | Email
Options button | Tracking Options button. I usually have "ask me before
sending response" checked.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

earlier you said:
When at home I do not use Outlook simply because I do not have a need
for it. I log on to my Gmail accounts with my cable internet
connection on my PC in a very vanilla way.

What plain vanilla method do you use? IE, Firefox, or Opera or some other
method?

If you use a client that supports receipts (like outlook, OE, Eudora etc)
and read gmail using pop3, it will allow a response. Using the web browser
to read gmail will not respond to receipts.

The read receipt request any email client sends, outlook or otherwise, is
the content disposition line I posted earlier - it's just a simple line in
the header and clients that support it know to send a reply back when they
see that line. It's all spelled out in the relevant RFC:
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3798.html. That link has all the information
you need to learn how receipts work.

 

[Shawnco]

Thank you so much Diane.

The article that link points to contains exactly the kind of
information I've been looking for.
The syntax of the Disposition-Notification header, the MIME technology,
the gateways from other mail systems to MDNs ---It's all great stuff.

Thank You!