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'Spy pixels in emails have become endemic'

Barry has been busy looking into so called Spy pixels and has found some interesting articles on the subject
I have put together some of the information in the articles and hope you find it interesting.

The use of "invisible" tracking technology in emails is now "endemic", according to a messaging service
that analysed its traffic.

The review indicated that two-thirds of emails sent to users personal accounts contained a "spy pixel", even
after excluding for spam.

Its makers said that many of the largest brands used email pixels, with the exception of the "big tech" firms.

Defenders of the trackers say they are a commonplace marketing tactic.

And several of the companies involved noted their use of such technology was mentioned within their wid-
er privacy policies.

Emails pixels can be used to log:

 If and when an email is opened
 How many times it is opened
 What device or devices are involved
 The user's rough physical location, deduced from their internet protocol (IP) address - in some
cases making it possible to see the street the recipient is on

This information can then be used to determine the impact of a specific email campaign, as well as to feed
into more detailed customer profiles.

It is said they amount to a "grotesque invasion of privacy”.

Other experts have also questioned whether companies are being as transparent as required under law about
their use.

Invisible beacons

Tracking pixels are typically a .GIF or .PNG file that is as small as 1x1 pixels, which is inserted into the
header, footer or body of an email.

Since they often show the colour of the content below, they can be impossible to spot with the naked eye
even if you know where to look.

Recipients do not need to click on a link or do anything to activate them beyond open an email they are em-
bedded in.

British Airways, TalkTalk, Vodafone, Sainsbury's, Tesco, HSBC, Marks & Spencer, Asos and Unilever are
among UK brands that have apparently been detected to be using them.

But their use is said to be much more widespread despite many members of the public being unaware of it.

It is possible for a user can install free plug-ins into other email programs to strip out many pixel trackers.
Other options are to simply set their software to block all images by default, or to view emails as plain text.