Read receipts in mail

No.

Mail can send a read receipt request:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1183650

However, note that read receipts are extremely unpopular, because of privacy issues as well as abuse by spammers (verifying addresses by using read receipts). Most savvy users have this feature turned off, if their e-mail client even supports it, which many don't. So not receiving a read receipt tells you absolutely nothing. That makes the entire read receipt system pretty much useless.

Mail will not, ever, respond to a read receipt request.

In some situations, that is nonsense.

Eg. 1: Some e-mail is somewhat important and you want to know whether the **** thing has been read (like the e-mail I sent to the police yesterday 😕) Read receipts, while not very reliable, increase the likelihood of getting that acknowledgment. There's no problem validating your e-mail address with someone who has sent you a legitimate e-mail. That is, the e-mail program should ask the reader if they want to return a receipt to the sender. I agree it should NOT do this automatically.

Eg. 2: Sending regular e-mails to a group of recipients who you know send back receipts, such as within a business or other group.

For general usage read and delivery receipts aren't completely useless either since receiving one means all is ok. It's just not receiving one that was requested which leaves a question mark. Has the message been read but no receipt returned, delivered but not read, or undelivered?

1) This topic is a year old at this point.

2) None of what you say changes the facts of how Mail handles this.

3) Your response takes into account only why YOU want a read receipt, and completely ignores the myriad of reasons that the recipient may not want their mail client to send a read receipt.

I probably shouldn't have written "nonsense". I apologize for that.

Regarding your 3rd point:

Thomas A Reed wrote:

3) Your response takes into account only why YOU want a read receipt, and completely ignores the myriad of reasons that the recipient may not want their mail client to send a read receipt.

Orb1tal wrote:

There's no problem validating your e-mail address with someone who has sent you a legitimate e-mail. That is, the e-mail program should ask the reader if they want to return a receipt to the sender. I agree it should NOT do this automatically.

If the e-mail client asks the recipient if they want to send back a receipt then they can choose what to do depending on the particular e-mail.

I think that would also be the best behaviour for requesting receipts as well. Eg. two check boxes in the message composition window next to the mail headers: "request delivery receipt" and "request read receipt". It shouldn't be either always off (OS X Mail default) or always on (possible to do using default message headers in OS X Mail).

As a more general point: Privacy becomes an annoyance when it stops the use of useful features. Some such features should be kept as options because the need for privacy depends on the 'proximate field' / circumstances.

If the e-mail client asks the recipient if they want to send back a receipt then they can choose what to do depending on the particular e-mail.

See, I strongly disagree there. It is nobody's business whether or not I read an e-mail message, and not only would I never be interested in allowing that, but I would be extremely annoyed if I were constantly hassled with requests to approve a read receipt request. If my mail client behaved that way, I would choose a different mail client, or I would add anyone who sent me a read receipt request to a "ban" rule that would direct their messages straight to the trash.

You say "Privacy becomes an annoyance when it stops the use of useful features," but in this case the debate is about my privacy vs your useful features. In such a case, my privacy always wins. If it were a question of me giving up some privacy to gain features that are useful to me... well, that's a different story, and we all do that to some degree every single day. But this is not that case. Read receipts are all about compromising one person's privacy for another person's gain.

Now, of course, you are welcome to do as you like. I'm sure there are probably e-mail clients that will behave the way you like, and I'm sure there are people who don't care about responding to read receipt requests. However, to expect system-wide changes, or changes to a major e-mail client like Mail, is unrealistic, because there are many people who have the same feelings about this that I do, and who would resist any change such as you suggest extremely strenuously.

Well...... You seem to be (deliberately?) missing the point that this is a feature that's not just useful for spammers but also for legitimate e-mails. The reason for someone to agree to send back a delivery or read receipt is if they want to acknowledge to the sender that they've received or read it without having to spend the extra time and effort actually replying or sending back a canned response. The receipt system is a built in standard which, in the cases I'm talking about, also benefits the recipient by providing a one button click way to acknowledge the receipt or reading of an e-mail.

Obviously the mail client should also have an "Always accept", "Always decline" and "Ask" set of options for receipt requests somewhere in it's preferences so that you could be happy and wouldn't have to go and ban everyone who sent you such a message or have to change your mail client!

If you have the need to know if someone received your mail, send it via USPS "return receipt required" - the recipient has to sign when s/he receives it. That is how legal and other important files are sent (or via FedEx overnight with signature required, etc).

Email is neither private nor safe and not all mail servers are encrypted - I would not send anything really important via email. And if I was prompted to accept or deny every time, I would change the mail client. It would not be acceptable. Unless someone sends me a legal document via USPS, it is none of their business whether I've received or read their email.

Have to agree 100% with you on this. Sometimes you're flying out the door and sending an email to someone who is perhaps also very busy or traveling. You just sent a contract proposal to your boss for 10K widgets but your client needs confirmation on the super low price you quoted. YOU just want to know your boss got the email and is working on the proposal... you don't want to bother him with a phone call. He gets an email that asks for confirmation or receipt, and in one minute you get a confirmation back saying yes he has it so you can board the plane and go on vacation.

I just lost 10 days because I sent an email with a design proposal to a production house and my rep never saw it. I called him today and asked him why he never commented on the email with the enclosed designs and he said he never got the email.

Some people get carried away with personal rights and miss the boat entirely. ^^^^^ If your recipient sees a deadline and a response required, its common courtesey to acknowledge receipt. Some people have never heard of tampering with the mail or lost mail. Friend of mine is a carrier and he says thousands of letters are "lost" in the USPS mail system every year.

I'm on the side of read receipts being offered to recipients as an option. It's obvious why a sender might want to receive a read receipt but as a recipient it can be a very good way to confirm you've received something to save (for example) a colleague following up an important email with a phone call to chek you received it. I don't like global solutions to issues that aren't really a problem, just a matter of preference.