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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'

#161

Post by wruza »

jeroenhd wrote: post #79
thepete2 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Gmail has this, it's in one of the dropdown menus. If you mark something with the right email header as spam, it even ask if you wish to unsubscribe instead. Spam companies often use this to check if the email address they've targeted is real because they get callbacks from legitimate users. I've only seen one or two legitimate uses of the header as far as I can remember.

in one of the dropdown menus

As if gmail ui wasn’t already obscure af. They could make “don’t want this anymore” button that uses unsubscribe header first and if it doesn’t work, mark it as spam automatically. Many shady practices would disappear at that same moment, but who cares when making six figures a year.

If only email could work as a modern instant messenger - no spam, reacting to explicit and well-defined user intents, allowing file transfer without limitations that render that function useless, and delivering messages in less than a second.

Re: Spy pixels in emails 'have become endemic'

#162

Post by mcv »

relix wrote: post #65
panic wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I would not consider it "best practices" to automatically unsubscribe someone who legitimately subscribed. Have a double opt-in, and then assume they're interested until they explicitly unsubscribe.

I'm subscribed to some mailinglist that I don't actually read but would be upset if they auto-unsubscribed me, because if I'm ever interested, I want it to be there.

Re: Spy pixels in emails 'have become endemic'

#163

Post by petercooper »

indeyets wrote: post #104

A lot of comments here, that tracking pixels are needed to check if recipient is actually getting messages. But couldn't you do the same via click-tracking? After all, email marketing is almost always about getting clicks

Yes. Click tracking is generally considered acceptable even by people who are dead against open rate tracking (DHH comes to mind). If your email is of a nature where the occasional outward click is expected and you wanted to clean the list of anyone who fails to click whatsoever, click tracking is an option.

Re: Spy pixels in emails 'have become endemic'

#164

Post by mcv »

encom wrote: post #106
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.

I think all sane email clients block external resources in emails. And if I ever get a time machine, I'm going back for the first guy to put HTML in emails, and then Hitler second. Additionally, if I'm receiving a message from example.com, and links in the message are not targeted at example.com, but some bullshit like sendgrid with a query string that won't fit across a 4K monitor, I'm deleting it. The other day I r…

Your government should have a place where you can report phishing email. I would definitely report mails with these kind of suspicious links. If they see their legitimate emails getting recognised as phishing, hopefully they'll reconsider their bad practices.

Re: Spy pixels in emails 'have become endemic'

#165

Post by aenario »

eric4smith wrote: post #40

For legitimate email marketers these pixels are important to have because: 1. Helps to prune users who never open emails thus giving you a smaller more engaged list. 2. Helps to see if the content they are sending to users is leading to engagement so they can send better emails next time. Yes, yes I know. Why even send emails in the first place. All email marketing is not evil. But legitimate marketers have businesse…

Add buttons in your email - "I want to know more" - "It's too expensive" - "Leave me alone"

All open rate tells you is that your subject line was click-baity but the user have no interest in your content

Re: Spy pixels in emails 'have become endemic'

#166

Post by mcv »

OJFord wrote: post #107
vtd wrote: post #41

The same tracking functionality can be attached to logos in the email without raising any suspicion.

Who blocks (attempts to block) tracking pixels but allows other remote images? How many clients even offer that?

I think I can allow images from the same domain as the email, while blocking other images. If not, I think that could be a useful feature to have.

Re: Spy pixels in emails 'have become endemic'

#167

Post by bennyelv »

grey_earthling wrote: post #149
bennyelv wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only that, but the way the article came about seems to be a bit strange. Apparently the BBC asked Hey to some analysis on their emails, and have written what appears to be a publicity piece for them on the result. Did you know that Hey allows you to block tracking pixels for the low price of $99/year? Now you do! Not the kind of thing I'd expect to see from the publicly funded BBC.

The BBC has form on this. They periodically publish news articles reporting that a person's life was saved by the app What3Words, without mentioning the existence of similar proprietary and open systems. See for example: => https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-55... 2021-02-03 What3words: Stafford women rescued from flooded river after using app => https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49754820 2…

They're even using the company's marketing materials for the images in the articles.

If I had the time or energy, I'd complain about all of the above.

Re: Spy pixels in emails 'have become endemic'

#169

Post by logifail »

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…

> 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

Can you give a source/reference for this? I'd like to understand it more.

I don't allow any remote content when I read emails, and I get quite a lot of regular newsletters. Why am I not being unsubscribed?

Re: Spy pixels in emails 'have become endemic'

#170

Post by intricatedetail »

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…

Something doesn't feel right here. Why would you send anything to someone with a potential to be marked as spam? That sounds like obtaining a user consent with unclear scope and then spamming them?
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