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by John W. Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

“Invisible” Technology is Tracking Your Email

December 6, 2022

It is no secret that data is the new gold. Companies are harvesting as much data as possible to target marketing campaigns or otherwise get you to go somewhere for financial gain. Tracking pixels (invisible images) have been around for a long time and are used to tell companies how and when you interact with email. BGR has a post describing the tracking technology and how to stop it.

Essentially, tracking pixels are “invisible” images that are 1 pixel by 1 pixel in size. They are embedded in your email and transmit information when you open the message and/or interact with an email object. The simple solution is to block the display of images in your email.

  • Gmail: go to Settings, Images, Ask Before Displaying External Images
  • Outlook: you want Options, Block External Images (mobile) and Options, Trust Center, Automatic Download (desktop)
  • Apple Email: On iPhone and iPad, go to Settings, Privacy Protection, and turn on Protect Mail Activity. Or turn on Hide IP Address and Block All Remote Content. Another option is going to Preferences, Viewing, Load remote content in messages to disable tracking pixels in macOS.

You can also use a third-party product to block the tracking activity. One option is to route your email through DuckDuckGo’s Email Protection, where the trackers are removed before being delivered to your inbox.

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