Track emails received by recipient?, Part 2

With respect to our recent discussion on MsgTag and tracking whether or not a recipient has received an email, quite a few Readers emailed me over the weekend with some questions.

Infopackets Reader Frank R. had some security concerns about MsgTag. He writes:

" I was curious about MsgTag, so I went to download it. I was immediately notified that my security settings would not allow that to happen. I use Spyware Blaster and IE-spyad for protection against the 'bad guys', as well as the usual anti-hacker firewall / anti-virus stuff ... so now I'm second guessing the whole MsgTag operation. "

My response:

Because MsgTag essentially plugs into any email program, the design of tagging a message is actually done when you click the Send button using your mail program. MsgTag picks up the signal and slaps on a tag -- which is most likely why your firewall is sensing 'strange' activity. But have no fear, Message Tag's design is anything but malicious.

Having said that, Infopackets Reader William C. had the following question:

" As always, I have enjoyed your letters and usually find something new I did not know to add to my knowledge about computers. I was wondering if you knew that the Pegasus e-mail client has a built-in message tag feature? I am tagging this email for 2 pieces of return information: 1) Confirm Reading, in which case, the verification comes from your computer; and 2) Confirm Delivery, which will comes back from my Internet Service Provider's (ISP) mail server and acknowledges the fact that the mail was delivered to the recipient's ISP mail server. "

Similarly, Walter B. questioned how Outlook Express operates its 'return receipt' function. He asks, " Concerning MsgTag: doesn't Outlook Express do the same thing? Take a look in Tools -> Options -> Receipts? "

My response:

After receiving Walter's question, I tried using the Outlook Express receipt method on my own machine, but did not receive notification that my message was read. Strange. As for William's concerns: I don't use Pegasus email, so I forwarded his question to Matthew Miler @ MsgTag. He wrote back:

" I haven't seen the Pegasus Mail read receipt, but based on Williams description, it sounds like it works the same way as Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express and Incredimail ... which relies on the recipient authorizing that the email has been opened. In this type of environment, the recipient can choose not to acknowledge opening a 'tagged' email, and thus, no receipt is ever delivered. The difference is that MsgTag does not allow the recipient to 'opt out' of sending a receipt. That's the beauty of it! "

And finally, Bobbi 'Logon Publisher' writes:

" I downloaded the free version of MsgTag and have the icon in my tray. All seems to be working however I don't get any notices that anyone has read my email. How do I get that? I have MailWasher. Would that be the problem? "

My response:

The free version of MsgTag will only notify you by email that someone has read your message. MailWasher does not appear to affect the message tag (as I have noted this on my own machine).

If you want to track the status of your messages (I.E.: whether they've been read and how long it's been since you emailed someone) -- only MsgTag Status will do that. If you missed the review on MsgTag Status, you can read about it here.