It’s an inconvenient truth that much of what we do online can be traced in some way. We have all gotten used to the idea that unless you use a vpn, your web history can easily be tracked by third parties. but one thing you may not realize is that emails can also be a way to monitor your activities.
Tracking pixels are now common and let the sender know that you opened an email you sent, as well as the date and time you did so. they can even see if you forwarded the message to someone else.
So how can you prevent another piece of your online privacy from being taken away? here’s our quick guide to block email tracking.
what is a tracking pixel?
are small snippets of code that are usually hidden in images included in emails. when you open the email, they fire and send the metadata (it’s open, here’s when) to the sender.
This is similar to how you can get read receipts when messaging co-workers, but in these cases tracking pixels can be used to create a picture of your activities, at least as far as email is concerned. It’s not life-threatening, but with so much of our lives now online, it’s always good to control what information about you that people and businesses can access.
Below we describe some ways to prevent tracking pixels from working; however, keep in mind that this will only prevent some from reporting on you. To fully safeguard your privacy, you should look into browser plugins like MailTrackerBlocker (Macos) or Ugly Email (Chrome, Firefox), and we recommend using a VPN service like ExpressVPN or NordVPN to keep all your online activities as secure as possible.
how to block email tracking in apple mail on iphone
In iOS 15, Apple introduced a new Mail Privacy Protection feature. The company claims that this “hides your IP address so that senders cannot link it to your other online activity or determine your location. it also prevents senders from seeing if you’ve opened the email they sent you.”
This is usually on by default, but to manually enable the feature, do the following:
- open settings
- go to mail > privacy protection
- turn on protect mail activity
for those using older versions of ios, there are still some protections against email tracking. To use them, follow these steps:
- open settings
- go to mail
- in the messages section, make sure load remote images is off.
how to block email tracking in apple mail on mac
As with iOS 15, Apple has added Mail Privacy Protection to MacOS Monterey and it should be turned on by default. To check that the feature is up and running, here are the steps you need to follow:
- open mail
- go to mail > preferences
- select privacy
- enable protect mail activity
In older versions of macos, you can still have some protection against email tracking by enabling the following feature:
- open mail
- go to mail > preferences
- select the view
- tab turn off load remote content in messages
how to block email tracking in gmail on ios
The gmail app offers a protection feature against some tracking pixels. To enable this, here are the steps:
- go to gmail
- open settings
- select your account name
- tap images
- select ask before showing external images
how to block email tracking in gmail on mac
Along with the plugins we mentioned earlier, the web version of gmail offers some protection against email tracking. Here’s how to turn the feature on:
- go to gmail
- click the settings (cog) icon and select show all settings
- in the general, find the images section and select ask before showing external images
- scroll down and select save changes
how to block email tracking in outlook on mac
if you use the desktop app for outlook on mac, presumably with a microsoft 365 subscription, then you can change the settings so that tracking pixels can reduce their effectiveness.
to do it:
- open outlook
- select file > preferences > reading
- in the security section you will see three options under download images automatically from the internet
- choose never or in messages from my contacts
how to block email tracking on yahoo on the web
If you are using the web version of yahoo, you can minimize the way tracking pixels monitor your email.
- go to yahoo mail
- click the settings icon (gear shaped)
- select more settings
- select view email
- under show images in messages, select ask before showing external images
For more ways to protect your privacy and data, read our roundup of mac viruses, malware, and security flaws to be aware of, and our best mac antivirus recommendations, along with our avast premium reviews. security for mac, avira free security for mac, and intego mac internet security x9.