Everyone is sending emails now: political parties, your book club, freelance journalists, the social networks you signed up for, your parents, the online store you just bought an article from a decade ago, and many, many more.
What do many of these email senders have in common? They want to know if the messages I’m sending you are open and there are a variety of tools available to help them do just that – tools that aren’t that hard to use.
A tracking pixel, embedded somewhere in the email, is how most people monitor whether an email is open. Once the small, hidden pixel image is loaded, it is reported back to the base. Their use in e-mails is now at “endemic” levels, according to some experts.
Tracking pixels can report the times and dates the associated email was opened, as well as the location of the device used and the email client involved. There is a lot of data that you can pass on to a third party that you may not know much about.
Marketers and newsletter writers would say that this type of tracking is essential to understanding their audience and what they are most interested in reading – as well as the type of profitability they receive from advertising money – but on the other hand you can feel like an invasion of privacy to have, in essence, an eye hovering over your shoulder, making a note every time you open and read a specific email, especially if you don’t know it’s happening .
You may not be able to do much about using these tracking pixels, but you can take steps to stop them from running and see what messages they include – so you know which people and companies are particularly interested in you. , and you can choose who to allow and who not.
Stop tracking emails
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Blocking images in an email client blocks tracking pixels.
(Outlook Mail by David Nield)
Emails are usually tracked using the pixel method mentioned, so the easiest way to stop this is to stop uploading images by default to your email application of your choice. Your messages may seem less visually appealing, but it’s a compromise worth making if you want that level of control.
In Gmail on the web, click the gear icon (top right), then See all settings and General: next to Images, Select Ask before displaying external images. In Mail on macOS, choose Post, Preferences, Views and uncheck Upload content remotely to messages. In the Outlook Mail program that comes with Windows 10, tap the wheel icon at the bottom of the navigation pane, then choose Reading panel and make sure both Automatically download external images options are set to off.
You can find similar settings on your phone. In Gmail for Android or iOS, tap the menu button (top left), then settings, then your email account and Images. For Mail on iOS, open the main Settings app, then choose Post and stop Upload images remotely option. In Outlook for Android and iOS, tap the profile picture (top left), then the wheel icon, then your email account – you can then activate Block external images option.
Email applications other than the ones I mentioned will usually have similar options that you can use. It is still possible to view images in the emails in these applications, it will only take an extra touch or a click to do so. If the images are not loaded, then no built-in tracking pixels will be accessed and will not report that they have been opened.
Tracking tracking emails
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