How can I use Mail Utilities to suppress Read Receipts?

Summary

This article describes how to prevent Read Receipts being delivered, either globally or between selected senders and recipients. Rather than removing the Read Receipt request from an incoming email, this method will prevent an outgoing Read Receipt from being delivered as this allows far greater control. An incoming email may have multiple recipients, some of whom should and some of whom should not send Read Receipts, so it is not advisable to simply remove the Read Receipt request from incoming email.

More Information

To prevent Read Receipts from being delivered we can use Exclaimer's Delivery Options module combined with a Message Header trigger in a Custom Rule. There are many ways to set this up depending on your particular requirements, but the steps below describe a couple of typical examples:

1. Open the Exclaimer Control Panel
2. On the Setup screen, ensure that the “Enable Exclaimer” option is checked
3. Go to the Custom Rules screen and click the “Add Rule” button
4. To prevent Read Receipts from any user either to anyone or just to external recipients
   To prevent Read Receipts from any user either to anyone or just to external recipients
   On the Addressing tab, set the “Sender” to be "Message Header Equals". In the field below enter the following text exactly as it appears including the space: content-class: urn:content-classes:mdn
   Also on the Addressing tab, set the recipient to be "Anyone External" to prevent Read Receipts being sent to anyone outside the organization, or "Anyone" to prevent any Read Receipts being issued to anyone at all
   -Or-
   To prevent Read Receipts from a specific user or group to anyone
   On the Addressing tab, set the “Sender” to be “Active Directory Users and Groups” and select the account or group from whom you wish to suppress Read Receipts. Also on the Addressing tab, set the “Recipient” to be "Message Header Equals". In the field below enter the following text exactly as it appears including the space: content-class: urn:content-classes:mdn
5. Go to the Delivery Options tab and set the Delivery options drop-down field to “Use these delivery options"
6. On the radio field below, set the "Do not deliver the message to anyone" option
7. Press OK
8. Press Save