Ask Leo!: Email Privacy

How can I know that emails I sent were received and opened?

leo@pugetsoundsoftware (Leo A. Notenboom) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:18:03 -08:00

In my business, it is critical I know that emails I have sent were received & opened. The emails are time sensitive and contain deadline dates for the information requested.

I have searched & asked questions... but all that has been futile.

I am certain I am not the only person unable to find an answer to this problem.

]]> That's because there is no answer to this problem.

And you're quite right, you're not the only person wishing otherwise.

But wishing - or even the statements of some companies that claim to be able to do it - doesn't make it so.

I'll explain why.

Why did my email apparently get delivered to the wrong person?

leo@pugetsoundsoftware (Leo A. Notenboom) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:26:35 -08:00

I sent an e-mail to my cousin, *****14 at comcast.net and got back a reply telling me not to contact her again. It says I sent it to ?????14 at comcast.net where ????? is completely different than *****.

How can this happen? Isn't an e-mail address exact? If I sent an e-mail to person1@somerandomservice.com why would it show up as sent to someotherperson@somerandomservice.com? if so, is there a way to prevent such events from happening?

]]> Wow.

I will say that you've got a bit of a mystery here. While I have a couple of ideas, I can't actually say "this is it" and give you a single solution.

In fact, I'm hoping my readers have some other theories as to why this might have happened.

Can I be traced by my email address?

leo@pugetsoundsoftware (Leo A. Notenboom) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:05:30 -08:00

I was on craigslist & posted an ad about possibly meeting up with someone. So some guy & I chatted back & forth about meeting up. But than a day or 2 later when I never got back to him to hang out. I basically blew him off because I rethought the idea on meeting someone over the web because he wouldn't send a photo of himself also his wife was out of town, so he could possibly hook up with people while she was around. He was calling me out saying I'm a fraud for not showing up to hang out and that he wants to report me to the police for messing up his day off. But the only way of contact he has is my email, is there anyway I can be tracked just from my email? When my email doesn't have any info on what my home address or phone number is? Also I was thinking what if i just delete that email address? If it's deleted he won't be able to keep sending messages to me threatening to be reported?

]]> I'm glad you rethought what you were doing.

The short answer is that yes, it's quite possible you could be found by just your email address. It could be very easy, or it could be nearly impossible. Exactly how difficult it might be depends on how you've used your email address and what information you've put in public places.

Oh, and whether or not you've broken the law.

How easy is it to forge or alter email?

leo@pugetsoundsoftware (Leo A. Notenboom) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 12:07:31 -08:00

Hi, I received e-mails (printed out). I am being told by the person who is said to have originally sent the e-mails that they are fabricated e-mails. In other words, he claims that he sent an e-mail to someone and that person modified the content to make it look like they were his words. Can this easily be done. How can I tell if it's been altered or if it is an original?

]]> One of email's "dirty little secrets" is the answer to your question: it's trivially easy to alter email as you describe.

In fact, if I understand the scenario you're describing, it might even be easier than that.

There are technologies to help ensure the integrity of messages, but unfortunately they're not something you can apply after-the-fact.

Is Yahoo (or Gmail or Hotmail or ...) reading my email?

leo@pugetsoundsoftware (Leo A. Notenboom) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 11:02:30 -08:00

I noticed the banner ads on Yahoo Mail reflect the subjects of my mail. To test this, I created a few fake messages to myself with subjects having topics of no interest to me like dog food, new car, landscaping, new shoes, etc. and noticed the ad banners change to reflect them. I see ads for exactly my mail subjects. Is Yahoo reading my mail?

]]> Not to get pedantic on you, but it really depends on what exactly you mean by "reading".

Of course Yahoo "reads" your mail. The question is really, how much, and to what end?