tracking forwarded emails using PHP

Hi all,

I want to develop a newsletter system, where by users can create newsletters
and send them to recipients, that's not a problem.

I want to be able to track certain things:

1. When an email is opened. I think this can be done with an img tag where
the src is a php script. We can then track when that script is called and
from whom.

2. Track if the email was forwarded, not sure how this is done but it should
be possible any ideas?

I basically need advice on the second point and to know that the first point
I am heading in the correct direction.

Please send any links if you wish, that will help.

Thanks in advance.

http://www.elemental.co.za
http://www.wapit.co.za
http://www.chaperonsa.co.za
http://www.tour2africa.com





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Re: tracking forwarded emails using PHP

1. Is possible. Google the term web-bug. Be prepared that it will only work
if the recipient has a HTML enabled email reader AND allows downloading of
images. Be prepared also that every time the email (including forwarded
emails) are viewed your server gets a hit. Might equal alot of hits. Just
embed an image with a unique filename (tiny or invisible if you want) in the
email and make it's source your server. Then track requests for that image.

2. Is impossible. It just is. The best you could do is track requests for
the image as in 1 above and notice the different IP addresses, and *assume*
it was forwarded but there are lots of other explanations other than
forwarding.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Angelo Zanetti"
To:
Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 6:32 PM
Subject: [PHP] tracking forwarded emails using PHP


> Hi all,
>
> I want to develop a newsletter system, where by users can create
> newsletters
> and send them to recipients, that's not a problem.
>
> I want to be able to track certain things:
>
> 1. When an email is opened. I think this can be done with an img tag where
> the src is a php script. We can then track when that script is called and
> from whom.
>
> 2. Track if the email was forwarded, not sure how this is done but it
> should
> be possible any ideas?
>
> I basically need advice on the second point and to know that the first
> point
> I am heading in the correct direction.
>
> Please send any links if you wish, that will help.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> http://www.elemental.co.za
> http://www.wapit.co.za
> http://www.chaperonsa.co.za
> http://www.tour2africa.com
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/)
> To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
>


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Re: tracking forwarded emails using PHP

On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 4:30 AM, Angus Mann wrote:
> 1. Is possible. Google the term web-bug. Be prepared that it will only work
> if the recipient has a HTML enabled email reader AND allows downloading of
> images. Be prepared also that every time the email (including forwarded
> emails) are viewed your server gets a hit. Might equal alot of hits. Just
> embed an image with a unique filename (tiny or invisible if you want) in the
> email and make it's source your server. Then track requests for that image.
>

In various environments, I use G-mail's web service, Thunderbird and
Groupwise, and all 3 disable images by default specifically to prevent
exactly what you are suggesting. I suspect many other mail clients do
the same, not to mention a lot of people use text-only e-mail clients
that cannot display images.

Most people I know don't want to be tracked like this, and if they
find you are doing it they will simply remove themselves from your
mailing list and/or direct the messages to the trash.


Andrew

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Re: tracking forwarded emails using PHP

--=-WFvjM5YRQzoQPvWRi5qN
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

On Wed, 2009-11-18 at 09:04 -0500, Andrew Ballard wrote:

> On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 4:30 AM, Angus Mann wrote:
> > 1. Is possible. Google the term web-bug. Be prepared that it will only work
> > if the recipient has a HTML enabled email reader AND allows downloading of
> > images. Be prepared also that every time the email (including forwarded
> > emails) are viewed your server gets a hit. Might equal alot of hits. Just
> > embed an image with a unique filename (tiny or invisible if you want) in the
> > email and make it's source your server. Then track requests for that image.
> >
>
> In various environments, I use G-mail's web service, Thunderbird and
> Groupwise, and all 3 disable images by default specifically to prevent
> exactly what you are suggesting. I suspect many other mail clients do
> the same, not to mention a lot of people use text-only e-mail clients
> that cannot display images.
>
> Most people I know don't want to be tracked like this, and if they
> find you are doing it they will simply remove themselves from your
> mailing list and/or direct the messages to the trash.
>
>
> Andrew
>


I think that people removing themselves from mailing lists is a little
extreme. I wouldn't remove myself just because I thought I was being
tracked.

There is another way to track reading of emails though. Microsoft
Outlook created something called read receipts. Users still have to
accept the read receipt to be sent to the sender, so it might be a
slightly more obtrusive way of finding out who read what, and afaik, it
only works on the first read of an email. I don't know exactly how they
are formed, but I believe it is some form of special attachment to the
email that is recognised by some email clients.

Thanks,
Ash
http://www.ashleysheridan.co.uk



--=-WFvjM5YRQzoQPvWRi5qN--

Re: tracking forwarded emails using PHP

On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 9:07 AM, Ashley Sheridan
wrote:
> I  think that people removing themselves from mailing lists is a lit=
tle extreme. I wouldn't remove myself just because I thought I was being tr=
acked.

You might not, but some people will. One (of many) of the problems
with that approach is that the same technique has been used by
spammers to validate which addresses actually get delivered and read.

> There is another way to track reading of emails though. Microsoft Outlook=
created something called read receipts. Users still have to accept the rea=
d receipt to be sent to the sender, so it might be a slightly more obtrusiv=
e way of finding out who read what, and afaik, it only works on the first r=
ead of an email. I don't know exactly how they are formed, but I believe it=
is some form of special attachment to the email that is recognised by some=
email clients.
>
> Thanks,
> Ash
> http://www.ashleysheridan.co.uk

This is just an additional header or two at the top of the mail
message. I'm not positive, as I've never used them, but look up
"Read-Receipt-To" and "Disposition-Notification-To". This approach
allow the user to have total control over whether they wish to notify
you. Keep in mind that 1) not all clients recognize these headers, and
2) many people again will choose to say "No".

Andrew

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Re: tracking forwarded emails using PHP

--=-cTcGfULYTNpSFCIeFXWt
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

On Wed, 2009-11-18 at 09:23 -0500, Andrew Ballard wrote:

> On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 9:07 AM, Ashley Sheridan
> wrote:
> > I think that people removing themselves from mailing lists is a little extreme. I wouldn't remove myself just because I thought I was being tracked.
>
> You might not, but some people will. One (of many) of the problems
> with that approach is that the same technique has been used by
> spammers to validate which addresses actually get delivered and read.
>
> > There is another way to track reading of emails though. Microsoft Outlook created something called read receipts. Users still have to accept the read receipt to be sent to the sender, so it might be a slightly more obtrusive way of finding out who read what, and afaik, it only works on the first read of an email. I don't know exactly how they are formed, but I believe it is some form of special attachment to the email that is recognised by some email clients.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Ash
> > http://www.ashleysheridan.co.uk
>
> This is just an additional header or two at the top of the mail
> message. I'm not positive, as I've never used them, but look up
> "Read-Receipt-To" and "Disposition-Notification-To". This approach
> allow the user to have total control over whether they wish to notify
> you. Keep in mind that 1) not all clients recognize these headers, and
> 2) many people again will choose to say "No".
>
> Andrew
>


Yeah, it's a shame, spammers are ruining a lot of good things about
email. The problem really is that email as a standard is pretty old and
has quite a few exploitable areas. I guess until email2 these things
will continue to plague us!

Thanks,
Ash
http://www.ashleysheridan.co.uk



--=-cTcGfULYTNpSFCIeFXWt--

Re: tracking forwarded emails using PHP

Hello,

on 11/18/2009 06:32 AM Angelo Zanetti said the following:
> 1. When an email is opened. I think this can be done with an img tag where
> the src is a php script. We can then track when that script is called and
> from whom.
>
> 2. Track if the email was forwarded, not sure how this is done but it should
> be possible any ideas?
>
> I basically need advice on the second point and to know that the first point
> I am heading in the correct direction.

I think iy would be more objective if you would tell why you need those
things because there may be different solution than what you think is
the way to go.

In this slide presentation there are solutions for things that what you
ask may be used but there are other solutions.

For instance slide 18 talks about solutions to know when a message was
received. Slide 17 talks about handling received messages.

http://www.phpclasses.org/browse/video/3/package/9.html

Other slides talk about solutions to other common problems. What exactly
do you want to solve?

--

Regards,
Manuel Lemos

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