PassingNotes.com

…so yeah, i’ve been following these oddball email recipient tracking firms for about a year - these are the lame ass companies that make crappy and secret little tools that will let you find out if somebody has read your email, where they were when they read it, how many times it was read, if they love you, and some other private information….the big ones are didtheyreadit, (which followed) messagetag.com and readnotify.com (there are a couple of others, like pointofmail.com, emailtrackerpro and activetracker for outlook from readnotify, along with integrated crm email readership tracking from talisma.com, mailchimp.com, constantcontact and so on - but those three above are the largest for dedicated email tracking)…for those of you who are personally bothered or sickened by these assorted services, there are a few things that you can do keep this shit out of your inbox for good:

a) use a plain text only ‘read mail’ setting - these systems above rely on presentation of a tiny concealed image file...and so any plain text reader will kill this (for example, you could do this in a program like eudora on mac or pc in the settings - and be sure to disable executables in html, which most programs will allow)

II)…or use thunderbird or opera mail clients (they offer these settings), squirrelmail or pine mail (later two are text intensive mail programs, not great for business people though)

3) download a free utility (no longer supported, but works) which blocks five major tracker programs (including didtheyreadit and messagetag) at either:
http://www.wizard-industries.com/ (publisher’s site)
http://www.download.com/E-mail-Tracking-Blocker/3000-8022_4-10350712.html (alternate download)

d) …for those using outlook, you can turn off automatic image downloading - and note that all future outlook releases turn off html display by default, rendering these programs useless..however, eudora and outlook have both proven consistently susceptible unless you completely turn off all html and rtf reading type options (you can search eudora.com for help depending on version, same with all other email programs)…

FIVE) …or use gmail - set up an alias to forward to and send from your regular email, but have all email route through an alias server account - folks have tested sending from these services to gmail and report zero display success (gmail is using a text display by default, which is why, plus they’re using DKIM to verify the server)…guessing this might work just as well with yahoo mail or hotmail…

6) …or you can also create a filter for the servers operated by these firms (e.g. didtheyreadit.com, which is where the messages are routed) - that way, though you won’t see the image, you will tag the ‘tracking enabled message’ in your inbox and then you can a note like, “dude, what the fuck?“…

i suspect that within 12 months we’ll all see the ability to block such message tags and tracking features from within most common antispam/spyware/virus type software apps…people consider this an invasion of privacy…the AHBL is already blocking didtheyreadit.com’s server

…and it’s illegal to use didtheyreadit.com in france (considered evidence, ouch!)

VII) …OR (light shines on marblehead) just use the old free version of “read receipt” requests in your mail program! duh. these have been around for years and i have yet to have a recipient deny a request for a receipt, excluding the olsen twins (knock on wood)…and besides, marketers have been doing this for years to track campaigns, so i’m a bit confused about what’s super new with all of these services beyond cloaking with a transparent image and dedicating the whole thing to gathering personal data like location etc…just my opinion…and my personal advice: don’t use it for business communications because i think you might come off as some kinda shitbag if clients start seeing that this stuff is coming through with your messages…

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