OT email read notification program question

[Broadback]

Are these programmes triggered if you simply delete the email without opening it?

[Adrian]

Depends entirely on how you have your mail client configured. I have mine configured to never send a read-receipt, even when I read the email.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Client dependent but normally not.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I think most people turn it off completely - I do. ISTR thunderbird used to instantly produce a pop-up over the message asking if it was OK to send the read notification, preventing you from reading it until after you had sent the read notification, so I always said cancel at that point anyway, as I hadn't read it. They've probably fixed that by now.

[The Natural Philosopher]

These days it allows you the option to send it, not send it or have a pop up request.

[Scott M]

Does anyone actually still use or rely on Read Receipts?

The modern idiom used by junk mail types is to embed an image with a unique ID as its filename. The webserver can then process the request to identify the receiver and tag it as a valid email address. This is why most email clients now block image loading automagically.

[Brian Gaff]

There are obviously some which send out the pretty useless email I see a lot. This email was deleted without being red on xx/xx/xx Which the user seems totally unaware of, as I have called them on it several times pointing out how rude it was. Brian