Its thanks to “spy pixels,” andtheyre everywhere.
Email is just about the least secure way to communicate.
But email always has been that way.
Maxim Ilyahov / Unsplash
Tracking pixels are even worse.
They give the sender an obscene amount of information about you, without once asking for your permission.
Can you protect yourself?
What Is a Tracking Pixel?
When you launch the email, it loads all the images contained in the message, including these pixels.
Unless youve gotten informed, opt-in consent first, its an abuse of privacy and needs to stop.
Tracking pixels have many purposes.
Email apps and services use them to tell a sender if and when their messages were opened.
Your boss could check to see if you opened that email they sent, for example.
From there, you’re able to tie that address to a physical address.
Spyware company El Torosaid that its technology “brings the location-specific accuracy of direct mail to digital advertising.
It promises “targeting without having to use cookies, census blocks, or geo-location tools.”
Predictably, theres a lot more.
“Unless youve gotten informed, opt-in consent first, its an abuse of privacy and needs to stop.
How Can You Block Spy Pixels?
The most basic way to block spy pixels is to never load any images in your email.
you’re free to switch this feature on in many email apps, including Apples Mail app.
Attachments sent to you still will arrive, but remote images never will be loaded.
And if you click to load those images, the spy pixels will be loaded too.
Some email services help out.
Fastmail, for example, copies any linked images to its servers.
It then loads these proxy images when you view the mail.
This only works on the Fastmail site, or in its apps.
Heinemeier HanssonsHEY email service goes one better.
It actively hunts and blocks spy pixels, and if it finds one, it tells you right away.
You could use theMailTrackerBlocker plugin for Apples Mac Mailapp.
You also could use CaudellsBig Mail, aprivacy-focused email app, which should be launching this month.
