Is there anyway to see when someone has read your text message on an iPhone 5?

I have an iPhone 5 and whenever my boyfriend texts me he knows when I've read it or not (that's a whole nother issue… ) and I wanted to know if I could know when someone saw/read a text I sent to them, like he has. How come other phones can do this? Isn't that a privacy issue?

You can only do this if you're using a texting app that uses the Internet - regular texting on the cell network won't provide "read receipts".

On the iPhone 5, the iMessage app *will* do "read receipts" if you text eachother using your email addresses instead of phone numbers.

In your imessage settings just turn off that option and they can't see it anymore, meaning keep imessage on but turn off the read receipt option.