Read Receipts (Message Delivery & Seen-Status Tracking)

This Wiki article analyzes the technological function behind message delivery & seen-status tracking (a.k.a read receipts) and the legal, cultural, moral, and psychological implications of its use in digital messaging.

A read receipt, or return receipt, is a notification, indicative of seen status, returned to the sender of a message once the receiver has opened said message. This software is nowadays used in Instant Messaging (IM), Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), but originally began with email tracking software. Email tracking technology was limited to monitoring delivery status before the introduction of “seen”-status tracking. Depending on the platform used and method that receipts are fetched, other robust forms of data points can be obtained using more modern code that track the receiver’s Internet Protocol (IP) address. Beyond the status of whether the message has been seen by the receiver, the notification returned to the sender may include embedded information like reception time, the time that the message has been opened, and location data indicating the receiver’s continent, country, state, city, or even rough coordinates within a multi-square-mile radius of where the message was opened.

Dependent on the platforms used in exchanging read receipts, tracking isn’t considered to be perfectly accurate. Some products function better than others, especially with internal end-to-end encryption like Apple iMessage, but other software fails to scrape IPs and return the data successfully.

History

SMS trackers have been around for a long time, email trackers even longer. Informed delivery (2014)

Technologies & How It Works

- Scrapes an IP address

Email Tracking

- Reads one-pixel image

Reliability

- Reliable for iOS texting and Instant Messaging - Unreliability ties into legal

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)is an organization that develops and regulates protocols for securely packaging and transporting messages across the Internet. The IETF indicates the lack of reliability and high fluctuation rate of tracking software’s success in Message Disposition Notification RFC 3798.

“MDNs may be forged as easily as ordinary Internet electronic mail and whilst they can provide valuable information to the mail user, they cannot be relied upon as a guarantee that a message was or was not seen by the recipient. Even if MDNs are not actively forged, they may be lost in transit.”

- Sources: (RFC 3798, IETF, https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3798), (Use of Message Disposition Notifications, IBM, https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/b2b-integrator/5.2?topic=higher-use-message-disposition-notifications) Google explains that Gmail’s email tracking is not always reliable.

“Don't rely on receipts to certify delivery. Getting a read receipt doesn't always mean the recipient read your message. How a receipt works depends on which email system your recipient uses. For example, you may get a read receipt if a person using an IMAP-based email client marks your message as read, but doesn't open it. Some non-IMAP mobile email systems may not return receipts at all.”

Read receipts in email have multiple reasonings to fail. Read receipts will

- Sources: (Request or return a read receipt, Google, https://support.google.com/mail/answer/9413651?visit_id=637395923678980799-3760639549&hl=en&rd=2)

Products & Implementation

Apple iMessage

In October of 2011, Apple released iMessage. The messaging platform uses Instant Messaging over Wi-Fi or texting over cellular-data networks. iMessages are sent and received using end-to-end encryption that even Apple itself cannot decode in conversations. When texting non-Apple phones, messages will turn green—the default is blue—to indicate that messages are being sent via non-encrypted SMS/MMS texting. To use SMS/MMS on an Apple device, one needs a text-messaging plan, but not with Instant Messaging. While not all mobile phone users have iPhone’s closed iMessage platform, read receipts only function on iMessage’s Instant Messaging—with blue text bubbles—when sent to other iPhones. Read receipts are an optional implementation that must be activated by the receiver to reveal to the sender that they have read the sent message.

- Sources: (What is the difference between iMessage and SMS/MMS?, Apple, https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207006#:~:text=If%20you%20aren't%20using,need%20a%20text%2Dmessaging%20plan.)

Gmail

Gmail Help: Request or return a read receipt

Legal

- Are read receipts legally binding? “Read receipts aren't a reliable way to prove email delivery and obviously they don't constitute legal evidence. … Email Tracking: Read Receipts Are Not Reliable Proof To Prove Email Delivery. Relying on read receipts to prove email delivery or that your message has been read isn't recommended. In fact, Google advises not to rely on read receipts for certifying the delivery of an email.” - Sources: Email Tracking: Read Receipts Are Not Reliable Proof To Prove Email Delivery

Psychological Implications

Emotional & Cognitive Engagement

How Do Instant Messages Reduce Psychological Withdrawal Behaviors?—Mediation of Engagement and Moderation of Self-Control

Psychological Manipulation

• People killed themselves after being left on read • Jobs apps, being left on read became more common