4 ms·

Will Apple Mail threaten the newsletter boom?

17 points by laurex 5y ago

olliej 5y ago
if anonymous email causes a newsletter to lose subscribers, it isn't a newsletter, it's spam.
JKCalhoun 5y ago
> At the same time, email-based publishing has been of the few bright spots for journalism in recent years. (Certainly it has been a bright spot for me!) Conflating spam with journalism. Sorry, but if this "journalism" relies on spy pixels and collecting information about me you've got the wrong customer. No sympathy.
- Waterluvian 5y ago
  Agreed. Sell a real product or go out of business. I'm fine with either.
Tagbert 5y ago
Is this so different than what many email clients do now where they don’t load images in the email unless the user requests them? I already use some obscure email clients (gmail and outlook) that do this. Do they threaten the newsletter boom, too?
randomperson_24 5y ago
I think even Gmail proxies images and GIFs so how would Apple's implementation be different? A genuine question. Also I have seen with many clients especially in outlook and Zoho mail where they specifically ask to load images or not, and I beleive even they proxy images through their servers not revealing your public IP
- detaro 5y ago
  Gmail proxies, but does make the request when the email is opened - you can track that it was opened. Apple says they will block tracking pixels entirely.
  - randomperson_24 5y ago
    I believe Apple just doesn't block it. It by default downloads all pixels (and images) for all emails so the sender cannot know if and when the reader actually opened it. It will by default show 100% open rate. But, won't it be a problem? like some malicious actor could send lots of emails with 10s of MBs of image embeds and if Apple Mail automatically downloads it, then the storage will unnecessarily fill up. Is there a countermeasure to it which Apple has mentioned?
- Tagbert 5y ago
  Gmail and Outlook will block images if you turn on that feature. I assume that this applies to the tracking pixels as well as display images.
jrnichols 5y ago
Good. If your sole business is tracking users and selling their data, I have zero sympathy if you go under. The internet can, and will, survive without constant data mining & advertising. many of us have already been blocking email tracking for years now anyway. We don't miss you, advertisers.
Nextgrid 5y ago
Just a reminder that email tracking is essentially illegal under the GDPR unless explicit opt-in informed consent has been obtained beforehand (and no, pre-ticked checkboxes or concealing it in the ToS doesn't count). The fact that Apple's changes (both this and App Tracking Transparency) are having such ripple effects despite the practice becoming illegal 3 years ago is strong evidence of the regulators' incompetence in enforcing the regulation and the fact that the vast majority of companies are not actually compliant despite claiming so.

17 points by laurex 5y ago

if anonymous email causes a newsletter to lose subscribers, it isn't a newsletter, it's spam.

> At the same time, email-based publishing has been of the few bright spots for journalism in recent years. (Certainly it has been a bright spot for me!) Conflating spam with journalism. Sorry, but if this "journalism" relies on spy pixels and collecting information about me you've got the wrong customer. No sympathy.

Waterluvian 5y ago
Agreed. Sell a real product or go out of business. I'm fine with either.

Tagbert 5y ago

Is this so different than what many email clients do now where they don’t load images in the email unless the user requests them? I already use some obscure email clients (gmail and outlook) that do this. Do they threaten the newsletter boom, too?

randomperson_24 5y ago

I think even Gmail proxies images and GIFs so how would Apple's implementation be different? A genuine question. Also I have seen with many clients especially in outlook and Zoho mail where they specifically ask to load images or not, and I beleive even they proxy images through their servers not revealing your public IP

detaro 5y ago
Gmail proxies, but does make the request when the email is opened - you can track that it was opened. Apple says they will block tracking pixels entirely.
- randomperson_24 5y ago
  I believe Apple just doesn't block it. It by default downloads all pixels (and images) for all emails so the sender cannot know if and when the reader actually opened it. It will by default show 100% open rate. But, won't it be a problem? like some malicious actor could send lots of emails with 10s of MBs of image embeds and if Apple Mail automatically downloads it, then the storage will unnecessarily fill up. Is there a countermeasure to it which Apple has mentioned?
Tagbert 5y ago
Gmail and Outlook will block images if you turn on that feature. I assume that this applies to the tracking pixels as well as display images.

jrnichols 5y ago

Good. If your sole business is tracking users and selling their data, I have zero sympathy if you go under. The internet can, and will, survive without constant data mining & advertising. many of us have already been blocking email tracking for years now anyway. We don't miss you, advertisers.

Nextgrid 5y ago

Just a reminder that email tracking is essentially illegal under the GDPR unless explicit opt-in informed consent has been obtained beforehand (and no, pre-ticked checkboxes or concealing it in the ToS doesn't count). The fact that Apple's changes (both this and App Tracking Transparency) are having such ripple effects despite the practice becoming illegal 3 years ago is strong evidence of the regulators' incompetence in enforcing the regulation and the fact that the vast majority of companies are not actually compliant despite claiming so.