[SGVLUG] Didtheyreadit -- a potentially useful side effect...

[Emerson, Tom]

I just received a message telling me that I just opened the test message I sent last friday, which is quite interesting because I know I didn't just open it.

I suspect (given my findings earlier) one of two things (well, three possibly...)

  1) someone followed the link embedded in my previous message showing the raw HTML generated by this service (the one that tries to get the .css file)  This "someone" could be a robot
  2a) my ISP misdirected my message to someone else
  2b) my e-mail account is compromised and someone else actually read my mail

Of course, item 2a/2b is highly unlikely as my e-mail no longer resides on my provider's system (unless it was picked up by carnivore? :O  )  The only way that 2b could occur /right now/ is if someone were reading my e-mail at home (and as I'm not there right now...)

The report that didtheyreadit includes a reference to how it was read, their (gateway) IP address, etc.  and it looks like it was picked up by someone at JPL just a few minutes ago using a linux browser (which really leads me to believe it was possibility 1) as well as about 3:00 yesterday by someone reading their gmail account using firefox on linux... [wow, scary stuff...]

I suspect I'll find more "hits" if/when our archive gets scanned (whether or not for nefarious reasons) and the link "followed" from there.  In any case, knowing that "someone else" might have read the message is insightful, to say the least.

Tom