3 ms·

By tracking whether or not you read an email via a tracking image I imagine...

• ben0x539 14y ago
  Is your email client really set up to phone home to the sender to retrieve additional images when it opens an email? Doesn't that strike you as an information leak/privacy issue?
  • signed0 14y ago
    Mine (Gmail) is not, but many (Outlook, OSX Mail) allow this by default. The URL of the tracking image contains a number or hash that is used to uniquely identify the person opening up the email.
    • corresation 14y ago
      Outlook hasn't done this by default for at least two if not three versions now. However if you read a heavily stylized with images email you'll almost certainly tell it to download images (just as one does in gmail), giving them that feedback that they want.
      • signed0 14y ago
        Good to know, it's been several years since I used Outlook.
  • ancat 14y ago
    Most modern clients prompt the user to allow remote images to load - it's usually not automatic. If there are some images you want to see (ie the message is in the image, etc) and it's from a site you trust, chances are you won't even think twice about allowing images for the message.
  • ZoFreX 14y ago
    People tend to enable images on newsletters because many of them are unreadable without them.
  • shabble 14y ago
    https://emailprivacytester.com/ https://emailprivacytester.com/ seems like a way to check how your usual clients fare with these various tracking methods. Or a cunning way of snarfing emails, I dunno.