Read receipt
A notice sent back to the sender when a message is opened, requested with the Disposition-Notification-To header (RFC 8098) and sent only if the recipient's program agrees.
What it means
The standard name is Message Disposition Notification. A sender requests one by adding Disposition-Notification-To with the address that should receive it; when the message is displayed, deleted or otherwise handled, the recipient's mail program may send a report saying so. RFC 8098 strongly recommends obtaining the user's consent first, says the default should be not to send MDNs, and forbids sending one automatically when the requested address differs from the Return-Path.
Read receipts are therefore an unreliable measure of reading. An MDN is a report sent with a null envelope sender, like a bounce, and must never itself request an MDN.
Example
Disposition-Notification-To: ana@example.comRelated terms
Sources
What this definition rests on. The wording is ours; the facts are theirs.
- RFC 8098: Message Disposition Notificationrfc-editor.org
- RFC 5321, section 4.5.5: Messages with a Null Reverse-Pathrfc-editor.org
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