Return receipt
Encyclopedia
A return receipt is a postal service
document confirming the arrival of a message
or parcel
at its intended destination. Internationally, the service is known as avis de réception (AR), but in some English-speaking countries, acknowledgement of receipt
or advice of receipt is used.
Email
As applied to email
, the term return receipt is somewhat ambiguous or misleading. In particular, when delivering a message to a recipient's computer system, which is controlled by that recipient or someone acting on his behalf, there is no way to prevent that computer system from making the message available to the recipient without issuing an acknowledgment to the sender.
In contrast with a physical delivery medium in which a courier acting on behalf of the sender can honor the sender's requirements for delivery - up to and including hand-delivery of the message to the recipient and requiring that recipient to authenticate himself to the courier before receiving the message. This difference in capability between physical delivery systems and electronic mail causes confusion and misunderstanding. For this reason, many experts eschew the term return receipt in connection with email, in favor of less ambiguous terms.
Two notification services exist in Internet mail that are similar to return receipts in the physical world. One is called Delivery Status Notifications or DSNs, and the other is termed Message Disposition Notifications or MDNs.
(SMTP), and a message format to be used to return indications of message delivery to the sender of that message. Specifically, the DSN SMTP service is used to request that indications of successful delivery or delivery failure (in the DSN format) be returned. Issuance of a DSN upon delivery failure is the default behavior, whereas issuance of a DSN upon successful delivery requires a specific request from the sender. Note that for various reasons, it is possible for a message to be delivered, and a DSN being returned to the sender indicating successful delivery, but the message subsequently fail to be seen by the recipient or even made available to him. The DSN SMTP extension, message format, and associated delivery status codes are specified in RFCs 3461 - 3464.
, and also for backward compatibility, requests for MDNs are entirely advisory in nature - i.e. recipients are free to ignore such requests. The format and usage MDNs are specified in RFC 3798.
A description of how multiple Mail User Agents (MUAs) should handle the generation of MDNs in an Internet Message Access Protocol
(IMAP4) environment is provided in RFC 3503.
A non-standard but widely used way to request return receipts is with the "Return-Receipt-To:" (RRT) email header. An email address is specified as the content of the header. The first time a user opens an email message containing this header, the client will typically prompt the user whether or not to send a return receipt.
Mail
Mail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...
document confirming the arrival of a message
Message
A message in its most general meaning is an object of communication. It is a vessel which provides information. Yet, it can also be this information. Therefore, its meaning is dependent upon the context in which it is used; the term may apply to both the information and its form...
or parcel
Package delivery
Package delivery or parcel delivery is the shipping of packages or high value mail as single shipments. While the service is provided by most postal systems, private package delivery services have also existed in competition with and in place of public postal services.-Package delivery in the...
at its intended destination. Internationally, the service is known as avis de réception (AR), but in some English-speaking countries, acknowledgement of receipt
Acknowledgement of receipt
Acknowledgment of receipt Acknowledgment of receipt Acknowledgment of receipt (equivalent terms include avis de réception (UPU term), Aviso de Recibo, advice of receipt, advice of delivery (UK and much of the Commonwealth), return receipt requested/required/wanted/demanded (US), Rückschein...
or advice of receipt is used.
Email
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
, the term return receipt is somewhat ambiguous or misleading. In particular, when delivering a message to a recipient's computer system, which is controlled by that recipient or someone acting on his behalf, there is no way to prevent that computer system from making the message available to the recipient without issuing an acknowledgment to the sender.
In contrast with a physical delivery medium in which a courier acting on behalf of the sender can honor the sender's requirements for delivery - up to and including hand-delivery of the message to the recipient and requiring that recipient to authenticate himself to the courier before receiving the message. This difference in capability between physical delivery systems and electronic mail causes confusion and misunderstanding. For this reason, many experts eschew the term return receipt in connection with email, in favor of less ambiguous terms.
Two notification services exist in Internet mail that are similar to return receipts in the physical world. One is called Delivery Status Notifications or DSNs, and the other is termed Message Disposition Notifications or MDNs.
Delivery Status Notifications
DSN refers to both a service that may optionally be provided by Message Transfer Agents (MTAs) using the Simple Mail Transfer ProtocolSimple Mail Transfer Protocol
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is an Internet standard for electronic mail transmission across Internet Protocol networks. SMTP was first defined by RFC 821 , and last updated by RFC 5321 which includes the extended SMTP additions, and is the protocol in widespread use today...
(SMTP), and a message format to be used to return indications of message delivery to the sender of that message. Specifically, the DSN SMTP service is used to request that indications of successful delivery or delivery failure (in the DSN format) be returned. Issuance of a DSN upon delivery failure is the default behavior, whereas issuance of a DSN upon successful delivery requires a specific request from the sender. Note that for various reasons, it is possible for a message to be delivered, and a DSN being returned to the sender indicating successful delivery, but the message subsequently fail to be seen by the recipient or even made available to him. The DSN SMTP extension, message format, and associated delivery status codes are specified in RFCs 3461 - 3464.
Message Disposition Notifications
MDNs provide a notification of the "disposition" of a message - indicating, for example, whether it is read by a recipient, discarded before being read, etc. However for privacy reasonsWeb bug
A web bug is an object that is embedded in a web page or e-mail and is usually invisible to the user but allows checking that a user has viewed the page or e-mail. One common use is in e-mail tracking. Alternative names are web beacon, tracking bug, and tag or page tag...
, and also for backward compatibility, requests for MDNs are entirely advisory in nature - i.e. recipients are free to ignore such requests. The format and usage MDNs are specified in RFC 3798.
A description of how multiple Mail User Agents (MUAs) should handle the generation of MDNs in an Internet Message Access Protocol
Internet Message Access Protocol
Internet message access protocol is one of the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for e-mail retrieval, the other being the Post Office Protocol...
(IMAP4) environment is provided in RFC 3503.
A non-standard but widely used way to request return receipts is with the "Return-Receipt-To:" (RRT) email header. An email address is specified as the content of the header. The first time a user opens an email message containing this header, the client will typically prompt the user whether or not to send a return receipt.
See also
- Acknowledge characterAcknowledge characterIn telecommunications, an acknowledge character is a transmission control character transmitted by the receiving station as an acknowledgement, i.e...
- Document automationDocument automationDocument automation is the design of systems and workflow that assist in the creation of electronic documents. These include logic based systems that use segments of pre-existing text and/or data to assemble a new document. This process is increasingly used within certain industries to assemble...
in supply chain management & logistics - E-mail tracking#Return-receipts
- Proof of deliveryProof of deliveryProof of delivery is a method to establish the fact that the recipient received the contents sent by the sender. When the sender sends multiple documents through the mail there is a possibility of some not reaching the intended recipient...