Invasion of Privacy?

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What do you think? Does this bother you? Is this something we might should write to our congressperson or senator about? Or ask the ACLU to look into it?

E-mail tracker firm sparks fears over internet security
By Simon English in New York (Filed: 24/05/2004)

The days of pretending you just didn't get that e-mail you ignored could be over. Today, a company called DidTheyReadIt.com offers customers the chance to track every e-mail they send.

By signing up, you'll be able to see when an e-mail was opened, how long it was looked at, if it was read more than once, and if it was forwarded to anyone else.

Inevitably, the service has already attracted the accusation that it is compromising the privacy of internet users. Rampell Software, the Massachusetts firm behind the website, admits there are "legitimate uses and stealth uses" for its product, but insists its intentions are good.
It points out that many businessmen share important information via e-mail that they must be sure the recipients have seen. Anxious mothers trying to track down errant offspring can be reassured that their children are alive, even if they are not responding to messages. Job seekers will at least know if an employer read an application letter sent by e-mail, even if they didn't get the position.

DidTheyReadIt is invisible to recipients, hence the concern from privacy experts. Next time you pass over an old friend, annoying relative or tedious business contact, be aware that they might know for sure you've ignored them.

A company spokesman said: "We are not naive. Private investigation has been a profession for thousands of years and will be for thousands more."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2004/05/24/cnnet24.xml&sSheet=/money/2004/05/24/ixcity.html

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I know this exists in some form already -- perhaps just between people using the same service? I'm almost certain AOL has this, and my email pager has it (a little "R" appears before the subject if it's been read by someone using the same service.)

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AOL does have a feature that shows you the status of mail sent to another AOLer--but it simply shows the date and time mail was opened or shows that it is not yet read or that it was deleted. Most services I think only send you a notice that the mail got to the recipient but doesn't show whether the mail was opened or not.

My libertarian roots have warning flags popping up here, but I haven't figured out why it would be particularly sinister yet.

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Isn't a read receipt good enough?

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I would think so. But do you see a problem with email being tracked to the extent described in the news story? You master programmers out there: if a tracking program can do what the news article says, can it be programmed to do even more? Say read notes added to forwarded mail etc?

How secure is email anyway?

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I dunno, Foxfyre. I admit I didn't follow the link, but I think this is old hat with some email services. Certainly, anyone on a2k can see if you have read their PM's. To me, this is no more an invasion of privacy than someone knowing who I am by installing caller ID, which was once touted as a privacy.

I'm a fairly private person, but I just don't see the issue here. Truth is, I hardly open email from strangers, and don't care if people I know see that their message has been opened or not.

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You don't need any software to do this. Using plain html and server logs many people/marketers install "beacons" into emails sent to you taht do this.

Use only plaintext email and that company can't track you.

As to how secure email is: it isn't. But this thing is a gimmick that simply makes existing methods easier and that can be foiled just as easily through existing techniques.

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Hmm okay. By plaintext you mean just the normal boring-looking e-mail you would get with Hotmail or something like that?

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The technology that allows this practice could be abused to invade the privacy of e-mail users. Technology can do a lot of bad things. The question should be does this practice, as it is; not as it might someday be, violate privacy in such a way to do harm.

To some extent it does violate our privacy, but can it do us harm?

Is there something folks can do with the information obtained that could be reasonably expected to harm us?

I don't think so.

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Foxfyre wrote:

Hmm okay. By plaintext you mean just the normal boring-looking e-mail you would get with Hotmail or something like that?

I'm not sure what you mean by Hotmail, I'm pretty sure they allow HTML email.

If you allow HTML images from a server can be served in the email. Ever notice those web counters "You are visitor number - - - to this page"? That kind of thing uses the image hit to track visits. The same can be done with email.

This service seems to do something a bit differently, but it can still be foiled pretty easily.

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as in all new technologies or subsets of existing ones, the need for limiting legislation comes not from the service being offered, but the abuse of that facility.

if everyone dealt fairly with everyone else, there would be no need to 'regulate' anything; it is the few who seek to gain by distortion that eventually 'spoil' the free exchange of benefits.

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BoGoWo wrote:

as in all new technologies or subsets of existing ones, the need for limiting legislation comes not from the service being offered, but the abuse of that facility.

if everyone dealt fairly with everyone else, there would be no need to 'regulate' anything; it is the few who seek to gain by distortion that eventually 'spoil' the free exchange of benefits.

The limiting legislation exists in the form of privacy laws. The question at hand is not whether or not there should be privacy laws, but whether or not this use of technology violates them.

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your privacy laws (U.S.), Finn, are not 'my' privacy laws (Can); i was alluding to the nature of such laws, and their derivation.

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Well in the unlikely event that I will send out illegal or subversive emails, I would like to know how to foil it.

Seriously, in matters of national security I support snooping. In matters of constitutional rights to privacy in our papers and personal effects, I think email should be included.

(Hotmail is the free email service built into the Windows programs--Outlook, etc.)

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Foxy,

As someone who likely sends out emails that are at least subversive (and perhaps illegal), I will tell you.

You should turn off HTML from whatever method you use to read your email. but this won't do the trick since there are myriad other ways for me to intercept and read your email.

For real security, you should use GnuPG encryption. The messages you send will be encrypted before they get off of your computer. The messages you receive will not be readable until they are on your computer.

If you follow the instructions religiously, this provides security that is very difficult even for the government to violate.

If you don't do this, you should assume that people are reading your email if they want to.

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BoGoWo wrote:

your privacy laws (U.S.), Finn, are not 'my' privacy laws (Can); i was alluding to the nature of such laws, and their derivation.

I assume Canada does have some sort of privacy laws. Am I incorrect?

This is one little problem in a globalized world.

Canada's privacy law may be stricter (or looser) than those in the US. This sort of collection of data may be illegal in Canada, but how is that law enforced by Canada when the data is being collected in the US?

I suppose there are treaties which do or can address the enforcement of Canadian privacy laws in the US, but from a practical standpoint, it seems highly unlikely that much effort would be expended by either country in enforcing the other's privacy laws as they pertain to the internet.

Of course all laws (not just those addressing privacy) are only necessary because we can't all be trusted to do the right thing.

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Foxfyre wrote:

Well in the unlikely event that I will send out illegal or subversive emails, I would like to know how to foil it.

The particular service mentioned here doesn't have anything to do with anything you send (unless you use their service). It only deals with what comes into your inbox from users of their service.

But beyond that, all anyone would need to do is set their firewall on their PC (or router) to block any communications with this service. The service depends on your PC pulling up a link when you open the email. If you block that link then they have no way of knowing if you've opened it or not.

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I wonder if that has anything to do with all these damned firewall warnings that keep popping up on my screen--such and such wants to access the internet?

(Have you guys guessed I am not a computer geek? I do recognize a computer two out of three times when I see one now though.)

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It is my impression that this is a way to deal with spammers. Cmmercial spamers generally charge by the size of their mailing list. It has be proposed that bulk emailer be charged by the number of emails that are not read. This would encourage them to limit their mailing to those who would actually read their mail and discourage them from crating large lists to increase their income.

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Well of course the writer of the article made it sound quite a bit more sinister than that. But then the media often makes things sound a lot more sinister than they actually are.

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Invasion of Privacy?

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