You send an email. Days pass with no response. When you ask your intended recipient, they claim to have never received it. Are they telling the truth? If you used SpyPig — a sly little tool that tells you when an email has been opened — you’d know for sure. Remember: Outlook and Outlook Express may seem to offer a way to verify the recipient has opened an email, but, when they open the email, the little box that pops up asks if they WANT to send a receipt (NO is an option).

Here’s how it works: Your email gets embedded with an image -- a cartoon pig. When that image is downloaded from SpyPig’s server, the application sends you an instant notification (You and your target both need to be using HTML-friendly email programs in order for the application to work.).

Intrusive? Maybe. Creepy? Perhaps. But if curiosity is getting the best of you, go on -- be a pig about it.

Common uses and personal thoughts on SpyPig:

- Sellers on eBay and other auction sites could track if their buyers REALLY got the notice saying shipping to (enter city/state here) will be $6.95 or that you ABSOLUTELY do NOT take personal checks under ANY circumstances.

- I haven’t experimented to see if the notification is triggered when a forwarded copy of an email is sent. If it does, this program would be great to test if your private personal email to your dearest friend is being read and then deleted or passed around.

- SpyPig would be great for those forced to break-up via email (though I advise the face-to-face break-up myself, as it can’t be considered cowardly or shameful by the public majority – because you can bet the public majority will be discussing it by lunch).

- Could this help parents verify if their child REALLY didn’t get the email to their cell phone to be home by 6:00 pm., because Aunt Margaret dropped by unexpectedly for dinner (or the get-home-now of the “you’re in big trouble” notice). Hmmm, can cell phones read in HTML format?