Page 3 - October_Newsletter_2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV2umY3R0vw

Dave Robb

How to stop your emails from tracking you

Tracking pixels are rampant. Here’s what you can do about them

It’s late in the day and an email containing an offer for a set of headphones drops into your inbox.
Excited – it’s payday – you open it, scanning the offers for the pair you want, clicking through to
the headphone company’s website.

What you probably do not know is, marketing emails like this are tracking you. During this short
interaction, the headphone company has gathered a huge amount of data about you. This could in-
clude the time you opened the email as well as your IP address, which can be used to determine
your location.

The majority of email tracking happens under the radar via hidden pixels you might not notice em-
bedded in images or links – and all of it takes place so marketers can better target you. So much
tracking happens that it’s been called “endemic”. This invisible email tracking is intrusive, unwel-
come and annoying, so how can it be stopped?

Apple is making some big changes to help people avoid being targeted by stealthy email tracking.
In June, the iPhone maker announced Mail Privacy Protection features in iOS 15 and MacOS
Monterey at its WWDC conference. When it launches this Autumn, Apple’s software will allow
you to hide your IP address and download remote content privately in the background by default,
whether you engage with the email or not.

It will be routed through multiple proxy services, with an IP address randomly assigned to you by
Apple. This will respond to the region you are in, rather than your specific location. However, the
launch is still a few months away. Here’s what you can do until then, or if you’d rather not use Ap-
ple’s system.

How you are tracked

Tracking pixels are typically a single and often invisible 1x1 image inserted into an email’s head-
er, footer or body. You might not see them, but the pixels load when you open the message and
feed information back to the sender, allowing them to track you. By using these tracking pixels,
marketing companies are taking advantage of the fact that many email providers allow remote im-
ages to be loaded by default.

The pixels can collect a lot of data about you. It could reveal your device type and even your IP
address. Other information collected can include whether you read the message, your web browser
version and your time zone. These can be combined to form a unique fingerprint.

Of the huge amounts of information that can be gathered from tracking pixels, perhaps the most
concerning is your location. The data gathered can be used to analyse your daily habits and work
out where you live and work. But the most invasive part is, it’s happening without your knowledge
or consent.