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I thought Gmail's solution to this was to always download every image in your email and then proxy the image from their own servers when you view it. This resul

I thought Gmail's solution to this was to always download every image in your email and then proxy the image from their own servers when you view it. This results in a meaningless 100% "open rate" for Gmail and does not reveal an end-user's IP address.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
bduerst 7y ago
This is correct: https://gmail.googleblog.com/2013/12/images-now-showing.html https://gmail.googleblog.com/2013/12/images-now-showing.html
- chimeracoder 7y ago
  > This is correct: https://gmail.googleblog.com/2013/12/images-now-showing.html https://gmail.googleblog.com/2013/12/images-now-showing.html No, it's wrong. The first time you open the email, the image is retrieved. It's only subsequent views that are cached. So the sender can still see when you read the email; they just can't see how many times you read it afterwards.
  - bduerst 7y ago
    Not quite, the sender still doesn't get location and your browser fingerprint. The receipt of email is still received though.
    - chimeracoder 7y ago
      > Not quite, the sender still doesn't get location and your browser fingerprint. Yes, but the key question was about the open rate. The statement: > I thought Gmail's solution to this was to always download every image in your email and then proxy the image from their own servers when you view it. This results in a meaningless 100% "open rate" for Gmail is incorrect because a) GMail does not always download every image in your email b) GMail does not have a 100% open rate.
      - thejohnstone 7y ago
        You are right, but do not trust in Gmail, because they like to store your data on their servers!
concernedctzn 7y ago
While you're mostly correct, they do not automatically download every image, it only initiates the download when you go to read the email. So they're still letting the sender know when you read the email, but yes they are masking the IP by using their own servers to download it. This can still be disabled if you use the setting to not download images, which is frustratingly unavailable in the gmail for ios app.
- staunch 7y ago
  Ah, okay. I keep meaning to test this out myself. It's unfortunate that Gmail doesn't mask opens entirely.

deleted 7y ago

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bduerst 7y ago

This is correct: https://gmail.googleblog.com/2013/12/images-now-showing.html https://gmail.googleblog.com/2013/12/images-now-showing.html

chimeracoder 7y ago
> This is correct: https://gmail.googleblog.com/2013/12/images-now-showing.html https://gmail.googleblog.com/2013/12/images-now-showing.html No, it's wrong. The first time you open the email, the image is retrieved. It's only subsequent views that are cached. So the sender can still see when you read the email; they just can't see how many times you read it afterwards.
- bduerst 7y ago
  Not quite, the sender still doesn't get location and your browser fingerprint. The receipt of email is still received though.
  - chimeracoder 7y ago
    > Not quite, the sender still doesn't get location and your browser fingerprint. Yes, but the key question was about the open rate. The statement: > I thought Gmail's solution to this was to always download every image in your email and then proxy the image from their own servers when you view it. This results in a meaningless 100% "open rate" for Gmail is incorrect because a) GMail does not always download every image in your email b) GMail does not have a 100% open rate.
    - thejohnstone 7y ago
      You are right, but do not trust in Gmail, because they like to store your data on their servers!

concernedctzn 7y ago

While you're mostly correct, they do not automatically download every image, it only initiates the download when you go to read the email. So they're still letting the sender know when you read the email, but yes they are masking the IP by using their own servers to download it. This can still be disabled if you use the setting to not download images, which is frustratingly unavailable in the gmail for ios app.

staunch 7y ago
Ah, okay. I keep meaning to test this out myself. It's unfortunate that Gmail doesn't mask opens entirely.