While the potential for future abuse of IFrames technology is there in spades, I don't see anything in your laundry-list of features of the ReadNotify service that isn't offered by FedEx, UPS or the postal service in their delivery and tracking of packages and snail mail. Or do you think those tracking systems also invade your privacy?

This seems like an honest attempt to provide verifiable transmission/delivery/receipt of emails, which is needed to enable a whole class of commercial and legal transactions to be conducted electronically.

I agree that email clients need to provide better mechanisms (or at least better documented mechanisms) to disable this sort of stuff. I also agree that spammers can abuse the Iframes technology in fascinating ways, but as long as ReadNotify's pricing structure isn't designed to encourage mass mailings using their technology, I don't see why their service is so terrible that you deny them a link to their home page. We certainly need more information about their service to form a rational opinion as to whether it's another privacy-invading spam tool or a legitimate audit-trail tool for business to business communication.

[ reply ]

Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/columns/258/27774#27774