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At the risk of conflating Gmail and email - doesn't gmail download automatically and serve images in emails from a google-owned server? Seems like this would co
by dpedu 6y ago
At the risk of conflating Gmail and email - doesn't gmail download automatically and serve images in emails from a google-owned server? Seems like this would completely defeat this kind of tracking.
- alkonaut 6y agoThey do. So the big splash image which is the same for everyone gets cached and served from google. The tracking pixel has a unique url per recipient (that’s the point) so can’t be cached.
- alisonkisk 6y agoWhat do you mean? Google caches the tracking pixel, too, unless the email is executing client-side JavaScript, which is extremely rare.
- jsmith99 6y agoNot OP, but Gmail's use of a proxy prevents them getting your IP address. It doesn't stop marketers getting alerted you read the email.
- dpedu 6y agoI'd expect that google has something significantly more advanced than simply fetching every linked image in an email and storing it separately. Additionally, I'd guess they're doing this ahead of time, before you open the email. But it's a guess.
- plorkyeran 6y agoGmail potentially could defeat tracking pixels by loading all linked images regardless of if the user actually opens the email, but they do not.
- snowwrestler 6y agoGmail does not stop opens from being reported using personalized pixels. This is not a guess, I know this is true from direct testing.
- alkonaut 6y agoWhat would the key to that cache be?
- alkonaut 6y agoOh you mean they prefetch unconditionally, thereby removing any information about whether the recipient has read the email (it always appears as if they did) - not that they cache it to share between users and make it seem like they didn’t download the image. Agree - they do that. They can’t make it seem like I didn’t download it but they can remove most of the usefulness of the information (it reveals whether the Gmail address is valid I suppose)