Read Receipt .. on Email?

Most are familiar with the iMessage feature on iPhones that allows you to notify senders when you open their message.  The first thing I did when I got my first iPhone was flip this  “read receipt” switch to "off," so that no one could see when I open their message.  It’s not to protect my privacy or to allow me to ignore them without their knowledge.  I disabled the read receipt feature, because I wanted to have more control over my messaging interactions.

But what if you didn't have the option to control a sender's ability to see if you had viewed the message or not?

Streak has developed an e-mail extension that allows users to track e-mails that they have sent- without the recipients consent.  Used on Google chrome, the extension includes organizational features that give users more authority over their e-mail experience.  They took things too far though, with the tracking component included in the program.

The e-mail tracker notifies users when the recipient opens their email.  Not only can they see if the recipient has read their message, but they can find out when, where, and how many times they have viewed it.  And the worst part, the recipient will never know if the emails are being tracked.

In my opinion, this crosses many privacy boundaries.  I would not feel comfortable for others to know my viewing activity on my account.  If every sender were able to see my email habits, they would often think that I was ignoring them.

On the weekdays, I am in class and at work almost every day from 9:00 to 8:00.  I don't have time to reply to e-mails that don't require short responses throughout the day.  However, my OCD does not allow me to tolerate e-mail notifications on my phone.  Whenever I receive an email, I HAVE to open it, to rid my phone of the notification.  I usually just skim it over, delete it if it isn't important, and flag it if it is something that I need to revisit later.

Most of the time, these flagged e-mails sit unanswered in my inbox for up to twelve hours.  A user of Streak, who may have sent one of these e-mails, could easily become frustrated if they saw that I had viewed their e-mail six hours ago with no reply.  I simply do not want these senders to have the perception that I may be ignoring them.

I am not okay with Streak's email tracking capabilities, solely because they do not allow me to choose whether I want my emails to be tracked.  I am sure many others would agree with me. I think that, ultimately, the feature will fail.  Gmailers will surely complain to Google, and I'd imagine that for the feature to survive, it would have to notify recipients if they were being tracked.

While the tool may be a smart move for sales and marketing, letting any user have access to it questions personal boundaries.  Should these users have the authority to cross these boundaries?  I definitely don't want my emails being tracked.  Do you?