Ark
join:2002-06-08
Hudsonville, MI
 ·AT&T Midwest
| Good luck
Good luck |
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dervari
join:2000-01-17
Atlanta, GA
clubs:
1 edit | For the small percentage of people that use Mozilla, great. But the vast majority of corporate users are standardized on Outlook with an Exchange server.
Also, some of these user iframes, which are harder to defeat than simple images. |
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TheGiant
Next Year Is Here.
join:2001-03-28
Augusta, GA
| reply to Ark
Upgrade time
This alone is good enough reason to upgrade. Exchange 2003 here I come. Besides this NT domain is a nightmare..
--
Keep America safe Bush 2004 »www.georgewbush.com/KerryMediaCenter/ |
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Ark
join:2002-06-08
Hudsonville, MI | reply to dervari
Re: Good luck
Oh well. I'm protected from email bugs, as I want to be. What do I care if corporate users still want to use outlook and be trackable? Their choice. |
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dadkins
Can you do Blu?
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
 ·Comcast
1 edit | I don't use an email client
I use web based email. Spam? Don't even look at it. (See pic) See the link that says [Empty]? I click it and it's all taken care of. I never open Spam(Bulk) email. 
--
Nuke 'em all, let God sort 'em out. |
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nightdesigns
Gone missing, back soon
Premium
join:2002-05-31
AZ
·Cox HSI
| How they do it?
I'm not trying to start a war here or anything, but I think for a small business like my family runs (ebay) this is a great idea. With ebay especially, a lot of people "claim" that they don't get the e-mail's to get out of an auction. If we could tell if they at least read them or not, it would always build a nice case in our favor. I have an idea of how it works, but does anyone know of a place that gives specifics? |
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Maxo
Your tax dollars at work.
Premium,VIP
join:2002-11-04
Tallahassee, FL
clubs:
| I don't know about how to track specific people viewing the gif image but if you run a web-server you can simply look at your server logs and count how many times that 1x1 gif image was requested. I suppose you could have a folder in your root directory called /gif/ and in it images such as 1.gif 2.gif 3.gif etc. Put a unique one in each persons e-mail. If you see someone accessed 3.gif and that gif image was assigned to the person in question then you know they received and read your e-mail.
--
"Affluence separates people. Poverty knits 'em together. You got some sugar and I don't; I borrow some of yours. Next month you might not have any flour; well, I'll give you some of mine." - Ray Charles |
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B
Premium,MVM
join:2000-10-28
2 edits | Load of Crap
I'm sorry, but I completely disagree with the SecurityFocus author.
For a change, innovative use of Internet and e-mail and web technology is being used to BENEFIT users, rather than hurt them, and this guy is complaining?
I think it's GREAT that those services have been thoughtful enough to take what was a mere spammer trick and turn it into a useful service.
Is it nice that normal Internet e-mail is virtually untrackable? Sure -- but who says it has to be? If you're savvy enough to care about DidTheyReadIt, you're probably already NOT reading your e-mail in HTML, or you're fully able to find other workarounds.
If you're NOT savvy enough to care, then you probably don't care and you already think that Bill Gates can tell how many times you forwarded his cookie recipe...
Just because the author, or I, am quite guarded about what we accept in e-mail does not mean that a legal service using existing technologies in an innovative fashion, in a way that benefits the USER of that service, should be discouraged!
-- B
Edit: Not sure about Moz, but I'm nearly certain that Pegasus Mail's stringently safe HTML mode does everything his beloved KMail can do vis a vis iframes, if not more. It would have been nice for him to have mentioned a Windows program that addressed his concern.
--
In a realm outside causality and function |
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mattman
join:1999-10-25
Lafayette Hill, PA | Outlook too
Outlook 2003 can be set to block images. |
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nixen
Rockin' the Boxen
Premium
join:2002-10-04
Alexandria, VA
·Cox HSI
·Speakeasy
| reply to dervari
Re: Good luck
said by dervari  :
For the small percentage of people that use Mozilla, great. But the vast majority of corporate users are standardized on Outlook with an Exchange server.
Also, some of these user iframes, which are harder to defeat than simple images.
That's why it's good to install an HTML sanitizer module on your SMTP gateways. Strips out or neuters such tags without the end user having to change anything in their client.
-tom
--
"There are 10 types of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't."
"That's only 2 types of people, moron" |
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nixen
Rockin' the Boxen
Premium
join:2002-10-04
Alexandria, VA
·Cox HSI
·Speakeasy
| reply to Maxo
Re: How they do it?
said by Maxo :
I don't know about how to track specific people viewing the gif image but if you run a web-server you can simply look at your server logs and count how many times that 1x1 gif image was requested. I suppose you could have a folder in your root directory called /gif/ and in it images such as 1.gif 2.gif 3.gif etc. Put a unique one in each persons e-mail. If you see someone accessed 3.gif and that gif image was assigned to the person in question then you know they received and read your e-mail.
Doesn't even have to be that complex. You can use one image file (it's only a single pixel any way) that is mapped to an inifinite number of URLs. A rewriting engine in the server would make sure the email recpient didn't get a broken link message and you would have an entry in your log for the original image request.
-tom
--
"There are 10 types of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't."
"That's only 2 types of people, moron" |
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Jason Levine
Premium
join:2001-07-13
USA
| Yahoo mail and image blocking
I like how Yahoo mail handles images in HTML e-mails. If it is set to block images, a link is provided to override the setting and show all graphics in the e-mail message. The override is a one time deal. You need to click it each time you view the message. This is useful to view the few newsletters that I subscribe to that send out only HTML versions.
--
-Jason Levine
http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/
http://www.PCQandA.com/
http://www.urateit.com/ |
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nixen
Rockin' the Boxen
Premium
join:2002-10-04
Alexandria, VA
·Cox HSI
·Speakeasy
| reply to nightdesigns
Re: How they do it?
said by nightdesigns :
I'm not trying to start a war here or anything, but I think for a small business like my family runs (ebay) this is a great idea. With ebay especially, a lot of people "claim" that they don't get the e-mail's to get out of an auction. If we could tell if they at least read them or not, it would always build a nice case in our favor. I have an idea of how it works, but does anyone know of a place that gives specifics?
As someone who purchases stuff on eBay, if I found such bugs in your correspondence to me, it would be the LAST purchase I made from you. It would also result in a negative feedback.
Since the mail servers that I use replace such images with a warning icon, I know when people try to bug emails sent to me. So, it would be fairly easy for me to know if you did try to track me.
-tom
--
"There are 10 types of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't."
"That's only 2 types of people, moron" |
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Morac
join:2001-08-30
Riverside, NJ
·Comcast
| reply to dadkins
Re: I don't use an email client
Yahoo's spam filtering is impressive, but not foolproof. I've had legitimate emails show up in my Bulk folder, which is why I also check it before emptying it.
Lately I've also seen junk email with only a subject (usually something like "read this" or "hi there") and no body showing up in my Inbox. Kind of annoying.
--
The Comcast Disney Avatar has been retired. |
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GlobalMind
Domino Dude, POWER Systems Guy
Premium
join:2001-10-29
Hollywood, FL
| reply to dervari
Re: Good luck
Well, "vast majority" may be a bit too generous. The numbers of Exchange users vs Lotus Notes/Domino users is roughly equal with one or the other stepping ahead depending on the day/hour. I think recently MS's claimed number was finally higher...but not so much that they completely blow away the rest of the market.
And before Exchange 5.5 or 2k users try to go through the pain of a 2003 upgrade...they should seriously look at ND 6.5.
K.
--
TheGlobalMind.com
"On a clear disk you can seek forever" |
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DrTCP
Yours truly
Premium,ExMod 1999-04
join:1999-11-09
Round Rock, TX
| reply to dervari
said by dervari :
For the small percentage of people that use Mozilla, great. But the vast majority of corporate users are standardized on Outlook with an Exchange server.
Also, some of these user iframes, which are harder to defeat than simple images.
Pegasus Mail also makes no internet connections to fetch online linked images unless the user instructs so. It is free as well.
http://www.pmail.com |
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Ark
join:2002-06-08
Hudsonville, MI
·AT&T Midwest
| reply to Maxo
Re: How they do it?
With apache/PHP you create .htaccess with the line "AddType application/x-httpd-php .gif" and have the file track.gif (which is a PHP script) check $_GET[guid] then spit out the binary contents of a transparent 1x1 GIF with a header like Content-Type: image/x-gif or whatever. Then you can use track.gif?guid=293042903428 and each email gets a unique ID. Its nothing really fancy at all.
Just one of many simple examples though. |
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SippinWhisky
join:2004-01-31
Wilmington, NC
| E-mail tracking? I love it.
I use one of the mentioned services--usually not with friends and acquaintances, but in business-related matters. More than once, the tracking service has been very helpful.
For example, take the firm that kept saying they were not receiving my e-mails and thus nothing in my favor was happening and my queries were going unanswered. I could hear the shock [and dismay?] in the person's voice when I telephoned only seconds after the opening of the last e-mail sent to them.
When they answered the phone, I told them they had opened my e-mail at a specific time and could verify that they had indeed [this time] received it. Such was the effect of my having that information I had no more problems with that particular firm. |
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starstuff
Fly By Wire
Premium
join:2001-12-05
Mcallen, TX
| reply to nightdesigns
Re: How they do it?
said by nightdesigns :
With ebay especially, a lot of people "claim" that they don't get the e-mail's to get out of an auction. If we could tell if they at least read them or not....
ReadNotify (see main article link) is the mail system for you. You can track everything, when it was opened, how many times, etc. |
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wbhigdon
join:2003-10-29
Bessemer, AL
| reply to dervari
Re: Good luck
said by dervari :
For the small percentage of people that use Mozilla, great. But the vast majority of corporate users are standardized on Outlook with an Exchange server.
Also, some of these user iframes, which are harder to defeat than simple images.
Outlook 2003 has this behaivor by default.... |
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