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Spy pixels in emails 'have become endemic'

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Spy pixels in emails 'have become endemic'

#61

Post by bayindirh »

JimDabell wrote: post #52
bayindirh wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Download via a proxy and cache the image when you receive the e-mail. It's processed in the queue and opened. Was it the user? Did it hit Inbox? Where did it got opened? When it's opened? How many times it opened? All these information's reliability got out of the window with a single optimization. You can't know how this mail was processed and it's fate. So, your tracking pixel and URL returned something useless to…

That’s not how Gmail works and it doesn’t protect your privacy that way: https://blog.filippo.io/how-the-new-gmail-image-proxy-works-...

I didn't intend to say or have claimed that Google works this way, but it can be done that way, if one is so inclined.

Re: Spy pixels in emails 'have become endemic'

#62

Post by btgeekboy »

wastholm wrote: post #59

What irks me is when email newsletters that I'm willfully subscribed to (the Economist comes to mind) inform me that "since I haven't been interacting" my subscription will be terminated. I have too been "interacting" (or as I call it, "reading") but my email client, very sensibly, doesn't load external resources, like pictures, willy nilly.

It's quite the juxtaposition seeing your post right next to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26163842

Re: Spy pixels in emails 'have become endemic'

#64

Post by thepete2 »

phreack wrote: post #60
relix wrote: post #50

If you're running a mail newsletter, this tracking is pretty important. You're supposed to stop sending emails to someone who's not interacting with them, or you get an extra point towards being flagged as spam. Since people are already weary of clicking the unsubscribe link and instead casually mark everything as spam, every little bit towards keeping your reputation counts. It's a damned if you do, damned if you do…

One of the reasons I get weary of going through the unsubscribe route is that it's always a gray-on-white link incredibly hidden at the bottom of the email, like every single time. It's a miracle it's there at all. It'd be much simpler to have it at the top and actually visible by eyes instead, if you just want to keep engaged users on your list.

There should be an unsubscribe email header for newsletters. Then it could even be a feature for mail clients.

Re: Spy pixels in emails 'have become endemic'

#65

Post by relix »

panic wrote: post #58
relix wrote: post #50

If you're running a mail newsletter, this tracking is pretty important. You're supposed to stop sending emails to someone who's not interacting with them, or you get an extra point towards being flagged as spam. Since people are already weary of clicking the unsubscribe link and instead casually mark everything as spam, every little bit towards keeping your reputation counts. It's a damned if you do, damned if you do…

Does this mean I’ll be automatically unsubscribed from a mailing list if my mail client doesn’t load the tracking pixel? How long does this take to happen?

Yes, if that newsletter is using best practices. The recommended period is 90 days I believe, but you can get send an email asking if you're still interested (and in that email, there will be a link you should click if you want to stay subscribed).

You may have had this happen before and probably thought that was just a scammy way to get you to click a link, but in fact it's completely legit.

Re: Spy pixels in emails 'have become endemic'

#66

Post by Nextgrid »

relix wrote: post #50

If you're running a mail newsletter, this tracking is pretty important. You're supposed to stop sending emails to someone who's not interacting with them, or you get an extra point towards being flagged as spam. Since people are already weary of clicking the unsubscribe link and instead casually mark everything as spam, every little bit towards keeping your reputation counts. It's a damned if you do, damned if you do…

I'm not sure why people would be wary of clicking the unsubscribe link on something they explicitly subscribed to in the first place. I mean, they trusted you enough to give you their email address to subscribe in the first place, right?

The only scenario I can think of is when people didn't intentionally subscribe or were coerced into subscribing and those newsletters can go to hell and fully deserve to be marked as spam.

Re: Spy pixels in emails 'have become endemic'

#67

Post by Nextgrid »

thepete2 wrote: post #64
phreack wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the reasons I get weary of going through the unsubscribe route is that it's always a gray-on-white link incredibly hidden at the bottom of the email, like every single time. It's a miracle it's there at all. It'd be much simpler to have it at the top and actually visible by eyes instead, if you just want to keep engaged users on your list.

There should be an unsubscribe email header for newsletters. Then it could even be a feature for mail clients.

There is and some e-mail clients use it when it's present.

Re: Spy pixels in emails 'have become endemic'

#70

Post by IndySun »

m463 wrote: post #32
pfundstein wrote: post #4

I can't think of any email clients that automatically download external images by default. The article seems to be over-blowing the issue a bit.

Apple mail will load them if you forward an email, even if you have remote images turned off. (last I checked)

Can Little Snitch and similar software be used to stop images, pixels, from loading and from being sent on a reply or forward?
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