Prashant Mahajan
Pune Null Meet, 22nd August, 2009
Securematrix

 I am currently pursuing TY.BCA (Bachelors of
Computer Applications) from Sinhgad College of
Science
 I am Security Enthusiast
 I don’t know everything, nor do I pretend to know
everything.
 I’m just a geek with time on my hands 

 What is Email Tracking?
 Can the Popular Email Service Providers Protect You ?

 Email tracking is a method for monitoring the e-mail
delivery to intended recipient.
 Most tracking technologies utilize some form of
digitally time-stamped record to 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.
Source: Wikipedia

 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.
 The technical term for these is MDN - Message
Disposition Notifications, and they are requested by
inserting one or more of the following lines into the
email headers: X-Confirm-Reading-To: Disposition-
Notification-To: or Return-Receipt-To:
Source: Wikipedia

 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.
Source: Wikipedia

 Email tracking is used by individuals, email marketers,
spammers and phishers.
 To detect whether the email address is valid or not.
 Whether the email passes the spam filters.
 To detect unauthorized forwarding and distribution of
copyrighted or confidential data.
Source: Wikipedia

 www.ReadNotify.com
 www.E-mailsecure.com
 www.PointofMail.com
 www.BigString.com
 www.SpyPig.com
 www.Confimax.com
 www.DidTheyReadIt.com
 www.MsgTag.com
 www.ReplyMate.com

Prashant Mahajan
prashant_3535@yahoo.co.in
+91-9822426910
Follow Me on Twitter @prashant3535