Spying on Outlook’s Return Receipt
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Q. I work for a large organization, use Outlook and sometimes wonder whether people have requested automatic receipts when I open their e-mails as a way of checking up on me. Is there any way for me to find out whether I’m being monitored? Between e-mail and cookies, it’s easy to get paranoid about the Internet—wondering whether someone is checking your e-mails and tracking your surfing habits.
A. I sympathize with you. The Internet, and especially e-mail, is an open playground for snoops—however legal or illegal it is. The wisest course of action when using your employer’s Internet connection and e-mail system is not to post messages or surf Web sites that you wouldn’t want your mother to see.
 In the meantime, there is a way to see if an e-mail sender is requesting a receipt. To set that up, open your Outlook Inbox and the View menu. Point to Toolbars , click on Advanced and then on the Advanced toolbar, click on Field Chooser. |
 When a drop-down menu appears, select All Mail fields. |
| Then scroll down until you see Receipt Requested , click on it and drag it onto the column heading in your Inbox .
When finished, close the Field Chooser box.
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| Now, whenever you receive a message that contains a receipt requested, you’ll be alerted by the note under the Receipt Requested column, as shown in the screen shot below.
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