Rampell Software's Did They Read It? e-mail service has been declared illegal by CNIL, the French data protection authority. According to CNIL (Commission Nationale De L'Infotmatique Et Des Libertés), the service is unacceptable under French privacy legislation enacted in 1978. French subscribers to the service risk a five-year prison sentence and a sizeable fine.

Did They Read It? allows subscribers to track any e-mails they send. The software tells users when recipients received their message, when the message was opened, how long it remained open, how many times it was viewed, if it was forwarded to others, and if those recipients opened the message.

After signing up for the service, subscribers add "didtheyreadit.com" to the end of any e-mail address. For instance, recipient@host.com becomes recipient@host.com.didtheyreadit.com. This addition to the e-mail address routes the message through Rampell servers, activating the tracking function.

Rampell offers a one-month, ten-message free trial. Subscription packages range from a quarterly program that tracks 500 messages per month for $24.99 up to an 18-month package that tracks 2,000 message per month for $69.99.

The service will work with any ISP or e-mail service, according to Rampell, including Web-based e-mail services such as Yahoo Mail and Hotmail. The tracking features are invisible to the e-mail recipient; only the sender has access to tracking information.

America Online's e-mail client can tell users when other AOL members have opened messages. The Microsoft Outlook e-mail client has a return receipt feature that allows users to see that other Outlook users have received their message.