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Email Receipts and Tracking

Types of Receipts​

1. Delivery Receipt (DSN - Delivery Status Notification)​

  • Confirms email was delivered to recipient's mail server
  • Generated by mail servers, not the recipient
  • Requested via SMTP extension
  • RFC 3461 standard

2. Read Receipt (MDN - Message Disposition Notification)​

  • Confirms recipient opened/read the email
  • Requires recipient's email client cooperation
  • Recipient can decline to send
  • RFC 3798 standard

How Read Receipts Work​

Requesting a Read Receipt​

Add header to email:

Disposition-Notification-To: sender@example.com

Read Receipt Response​

When recipient opens email:

From: recipient@example.com
To: sender@example.com
Subject: Read Receipt
Content-Type: message/disposition-notification

Disposition: automatic-action/MDN-sent-automatically;displayed
Original-Message-ID: <original-id@example.com>

Limitations of Read Receipts​

  1. Recipient Control: User can deny sending receipt
  2. Client Support: Not all email clients support them
  3. Privacy Concerns: Many users disable them
  4. No Guarantee: Receipt ≠ Actually Read

Email Tracking Alternatives​

1. Tracking Pixels​

  • Embed 1x1 transparent image in HTML email
  • Image hosted on tracking server
  • When email opened, image request logged
  • Tracks: open time, location (IP), device type

Example:

<img src="https://track.example.com/pixel/unique-id.png" width="1" height="1" />
  • Replace links with tracked URLs
  • Redirect through tracking server
  • Logs click data before redirecting to actual URL

3. Email Marketing Platforms​

Services like:

  • Mailchimp
  • SendGrid
  • Amazon SES

Provide:

  • Open rates
  • Click rates
  • Bounce tracking
  • Unsubscribe tracking

SMTP Delivery Notifications​

Success Notification (Delivery)​

Final-Recipient: rfc822;recipient@example.com
Action: delivered
Status: 2.0.0 (Success)

Failure Notification (Bounce)​

Final-Recipient: rfc822;recipient@example.com
Action: failed
Status: 5.1.1 (User unknown)

Privacy and Ethics​

  • Many users consider tracking invasive
  • GDPR and privacy laws may restrict tracking
  • Transparent disclosure recommended
  • Some email clients block tracking pixels