People Can See When You Open Their Emails? Security Experts Tell Us How To Block The Hidden Read Receipts

A tech dominant world can make you feel like everything is so fast paced you can barely keep up and keep your head above water. The expectation that you’ll respond to texts and emails seconds after you receive them is a real one — also one that can add to your stress and anxiety. If you’d like to take back your time and manage it how you see fit, one move you can make is changing a few settings so that your emails are more private. And one way to retain your privacy is by not allowing email senders to see when you’ve read their emails (which may make them suspicious if you take hours or days or even a week to get back to them). 

Tech Expert Jon Morgan, CEO of Ventures Smarter, suggests steps to take to make your email more private — including how to block hidden read receipts. 

“Blocking hidden read receipts can be a useful step to ensure your email activity remains private and prevent others from knowing whether you have read their messages or not,” Morgan says. “Here’s a description of how you can achieve this:”

The first step is to disable read receipts in your email client or service. “The process may vary depending on the email platform you are using, but generally, you can find this option in the settings or preferences section,” Morgan says. “Look for a setting related to read receipts or message tracking and disable it. This will prevent your email client from sending read receipts to the sender.”

Along with disabling read receipts, it’s important to review the privacy settings of your email account, according to Morgan. “Many email services offer various privacy options, such as blocking external images or preventing remote content from loading automatically,” Morgan says. “Enabling these settings can help prevent senders from receiving notifications when you open their emails or when you download images.”