You may choose to allow and send read receipts, but many people tend to block them completely. For example, sending legal documents or commercially sensitive information. Spammers will often use read receipts to confirm an email address is real and active.īut there are also legitimate purposes for requesting a read receipt. This confirms to the sender that you've received and opened the email. You'll occasionally receive an email asking for you to send a read receipt to the sender. The setting must be manually disabled and is switched-on regardless of how read receipts are handled on the desktop Outlook app.Ī Microsoft support representative confirmed the instructions for disabling read receipts (see instructions below) from mobile devices but offered no explanation why they are switched on by default. This automatic setting appears to be the default for accounts on business-level Office 365 subscriptions. Outlook on mobile devices is quietly sending read receipts without making users aware.