E-mail tracking
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
E-mail tracking is a method for monitoring your e-mail delivery to your intended recipient. Most tracking technologies utilize some form of digitally time-stamped record reveal the exact time and date that your e-mail was received or opened, as well the IP address of the recipient.
E-mail tracking is useful when the sender wants to know if the intended recipient actually received the e-mail, or if they clicked the links. However, due to the nature of the technology, e-mail tracking cannot be considered an absolutely accurate indicator that a message was opened or read by the recipient.
Most e-mail marketing software provides tracking features, sometimes in aggregate (e.g. click-through rate), and sometimes on an individual basis.
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[edit] Read-receipts
Some e-mail applications, such as Microsoft Office Outlook, employ a read-receipt tracking mechanism. The sender selects the receipt request option prior to sending the message, and then upon sending, each recipient has the option of notifying the sender that the message was received and/or read by the recipient.
However, just because you request a receipt, does not mean you will get one in return. Not all e-mail applications support the read receipt option, meaning your recipient may never be asked to provide one. In addition, recipients have the option to block each or all read request confirmations from being sent.
Another potential problem with read receipts is they interrupt (and potentially annoy) your recipient, forcing them to click a notification button before they can move on with their work. So, even though it is an opt-in process, many recipients may consider it inconvenient, discourteous, or invasive, and many will decline the receipt.
Read receipts are sent back to your Inbox as e-mail messages. Additional technical information, such as who it is from, the e-mail software they use, and the IP address of the e-mail server is available inside the Internet headers of the read receipt.
Note that the IP address shown might not be a public IP address, and most likely will be the IP address for the Internet service provider the recipient uses for their internet e-mail service.
[edit] E-mail marketing and tracking
Some e-mail marketing tools include tracking as a feature. Such e-mail tracking is usually accomplished using standard web tracking devices known as cookies and web beacons. When you send a tracked e-mail message, whether it's a simple text message or a graphical html message, the e-mail marketing system may embed a tiny, invisible tracking image (a single-pixel gif, sometimes called a web beacon) within the content of the message. When the recipient opens the message, the tracking image is referenced. When they click a link or open an attachment, another tracking code is activated. In each case a separate tracking event is recorded by the system. These response events accumulate over time in a database, enabled the e-mail marketing software to report metrics such as open-rate and click-through rates. E-mail marketing users can view reports on both aggregate response statistics and individual response over time.
[edit] Privacy issues
E-mail tracking may be used by Individuals, e-mail marketers, spammers and phishers, to verify that e-mail addresses are valid, that the content of e-mails has made it past the spam filters, and that the e-mail is actually viewed by users. It can sometimes reveal when e-mails get forwarded (but never who to). Most legitimate companies use it at the aggregate level to help determine the effectiveness of their sales and marketing messages. Other companies use it at the individual level to better understand a customer's specific areas of interest. When used effectively, it helps the company provide more timely, and more relevant information to the recipient. When used maliciously, it can be used to collect confidential information about businesses and individuals and to create more effective phishing schemes.
The tracking mechanisms employed are typically first-party cookies and web bugs, which have been standard methods for tracking online activity for years. E-mail tracking systems are really nothing more than recording data similar to a standard web log. Almost every website you visit tracks activity using these methods, and every e-mail marketing messages you have received has likely been tracked using these methods as well.
If you are using e-mail tracking or e-mail marketing software, your company's privacy policy should state that you may utilize tracking devices such as cookies and web beacons (and most do, as they are common devices on websites).
[edit] Opt-out
Although it is possible to opt-out of e-mail tracking, doing so does not come without sacrifice. Within one's individual e-mail client, one can turn off image display, disable the display of links, and decline any read-receipt requests.
One should note that there are e-mail tracking services which convert the e-mail message into an image before delivering the message. One obviously cannot read the message contained in the image if image display is disabled in one's e-mail client.
[edit] HP e-mail tracking scandal
In the U.S. Congressional Inquiry investigating the HP pretexting scandal it was revealed that HP security used an e-mail tracking service called ReadNotify.com to investigate boardroom leaks.[1] The California attorney general’s office has said that this practice was not part of the pretexting charges. [2] HP said they consider e-mail tracing to be legitimate and will continue using it[3].
