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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteAn automatic read notification is a message sent to an email’s sender to report what happened to the message after delivery. The email standard calls it a Message Disposition Notification (MDN); it is also commonly known as a read receipt. It can indicate that a mail app displayed a message, but it cannot prove that a person read or understood it.
How an email read receipt works
An MDN is a standards-based report generated by a mail application or email gateway after a message has been delivered. The sender requests one using the Disposition-Notification-To header. The report may describe a disposition such as display, printing, deletion without display, or refusal to provide an MDN. The format is defined in RFC 8098, an Internet Standard published by the IETF in February 2017.
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A displayed MDN reports that the mail user agent displayed the message. As RFC 8098 puts it, “There is no guarantee that the content has been read or understood.” A message may be displayed without its recipient paying attention to it.
How a read receipt differs from email open tracking
Some email tracking services use a unique, invisible image embedded in an HTML email. If the recipient’s mail app fetches that image, the service can report a possible preview or opening to the sender. This image-fetch method is separate from an MDN: it does not use the standards-based disposition report.
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| Signal | How it works | What it can indicate | Important limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| MDN (read receipt) | The recipient’s mail user agent or gateway reports a disposition after delivery, following a sender’s request. | A disposition such as display, printing, deletion without display, or refusal to send an MDN. | A display report does not establish that a person read or understood the message. Recipient settings and privacy safeguards affect whether a report is sent. |
| Email open tracking | A tracking service detects whether a unique embedded image in an HTML email is fetched. | A possible preview or opening. | Image blocking, text-only display, and other mail-client behavior can prevent the image from being fetched; an image fetch does not prove comprehension. |
Because open tracking depends on image loading, it can miss a message that was viewed without fetching the image. An MDN and an image-based tracking signal therefore report different events, and neither is proof of attention.
Are read notifications automatic or guaranteed?
No. A sender can request an MDN, but the recipient’s email software and privacy choices affect whether it is sent. RFC 8098 treats privacy as a design concern: the default should be not to send MDNs, and confirmation is required in specified cases. A read receipt should not be assumed to be silent or guaranteed.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to stop your email from sending read notifications
The setting depends on your mail app, account, and any organization-managed settings, so there is no universal path that applies to every inbox. Look in your email client’s settings for read receipts or message-disposition notifications, and consult its instructions for the exact controls. Turning off MDNs does not, by itself, establish that separate image-based open tracking cannot detect an image fetch.
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