New York — The online world is not without premium mail delivery services.
Some e-mail programs allow you to request receipts, but they can be ignored and only work if the recipient has the proper software and settings.
Premium services, generally carrying a fee, attempt to bypass these restrictions. They also offer features such as encryption to protect sensitive messages and ensure that their content is not altered.
With a receipt, you also get a date and time stamp similar to a postmark to prove you sent the message, though these methods have yet to be tested in courts.
"In the electronic world, there still is not a very good body of law around what is necessary to satisfy (proof of) electronic delivery," said Bill Robertson of NETdelivery Corp., which helped develop e-mail delivery systems for the Canadian and Swedish post offices.
Nevertheless, receipts offer something, if nothing more than knowledge that the recipient got the message.
For $49 to $99 a year, CertifiedMail.com Inc. of Springfield, N.J., offers receipts and other services using a Web-based e-mail interface or plug-ins for Microsoft's Outlook or IBM's Lotus Notes software.
PostX Corp., based in Cupertino, Calif., offers similar services targeted at corporations. Its clients include Visa and Charles Schwab Corp., the brokerage firm. Senders must install special software, though recipients don't have to. A consumer version is in the works.
Critical Path Inc. also offers systems for corporations, governments and network service providers.
If all you need to know is whether the recipient received and opened the message, iTraceYou.com has services for casual and frequent users.
The free service lets you send five messages a day normally; after that, an iTraceYou ad is appended. For $2 or $3 a month, you get more ad-free messages.
You can use a Web interface or regular e-mail software.
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