Email tracking

[Cleyton]

Hi all, I was curious, what do you think of tools that track whether our emails have been opened or not like mailtrack.email ? Personally, I'm hesitant to get started. It sounds practical, but I wonder if it's really useful on a daily basis or if it's just another thing to manage... And besides, isn't it a bit intrusive? Have you already tested it?

[n5bb]

Welcome to the EMD forums! You posted this in the Fastmail email service forum - does your question involve either sending ro receiving such tracking emails using Fastmail?

Email standards are voluntary. Many features are proposed, but not all of these are widely implemented by email systems and clients. Some systems (but not all) support standards-based email tracking. See:
Return receipt

Another method which is commonly used by spammers and email marketers is a tracking image or pixel. When the recipient actually opens the message to view it, a remote image is requested from the source specified in the email HTML code. This reveals that the message was opened for reading and also unveils the IP address of the recipient. Of course, this can be viewed as a potentially dangerous security issue for the message recipient. See:
Spy pixel

It’s important to realize that there are three main methods to send an image in an email:

• The image can be sent in an attachment. The recipient must open that attached file to see the image.
• The image can be embedded into the message and is automatically displayed. Everything required to view the image is contained within the message.
• The HTML code can contain a remote automatically opening link to a server containing the image. This is how the sender can discover that the message was viewed and uncover the IP address of the recipient. Many email systems (including Fastmail) allow the user to not display such images by default, preventing spammers or marketers from determining that you opening the message. If you choose to view the remote images in an email, Fastmail opens the image in their server then sends it to the user, so although the fact that the message was opened is revealed to the sender, your personal IP address is not revealed. But if you use a local email client (such as Outlook or Thunderbird or Apple Mail) your IP address will be revealed. See: Fastmail help on remote images

Bill

[hadaso]

Originally Posted by n5bb

...Many email systems (including Fastmail) allow the user to not display such images by default, preventing spammers or marketers from determining that you opening the message...

Of course this means that it is an unreliable method of determining whether an email message was "opened".

[n5bb]

Originally Posted by hadaso

Of course this means that it is an unreliable method of determining whether an email message was "opened".

Exactly. There is no guaranteed way to determine if an email you send is received unless the recipient notifies you they read it. This is similar to voicemail or regular postal mail. The most damaging situation is if a phisher sends you an email and they learn that it was received and read, rather than being filtered by your spam filter or deleted. Once the phisher knows they can get you to read their messages, they can focus on getting you to do something to their advantage.

Also remember that image files can contain malware. See:
Viruses can hide in images

On a related topic, you should never reply to a spam or phishing email.

• On many email systems, email addresses to which you send messages are automatically added to your address book. Since this often whitelists that address, the next message from that source can easily make it to your Inbox by bypassing your spam filter.
• Of course, the spammer knows you received that message when you reply to them. So they know they can easily get your attention.

Bill

[Bamb0]

Tracking an email is pretty much pointless because it relys on either the server OR the persons own inbox to give up some privacy and today its hard to find any that willingly does..

Welcome to EMD Cleyton

[TenFour]

Tracking an email is pretty much pointless because it relys on either the server OR the persons own inbox to give up some privacy and todsay its hard to find any that willingly doessss

99% of ordinary people use Gmail or Outlook or Apple mail and just leave all the default settings, meaning that many services track whether or not they are opening emails. I worked for a major email marketing service provider and we tracked and regularly reported on email opens for every campaign. It is one of the most important metrics used to judge the effectiveness of email marketing.

[Bamb0]

Thats interesting knowing mate!

[jacopo]

Originally Posted by Cleyton

Hi all, I was curious, what do you think of tools that track whether our emails have been opened or not like mailtrack.email ? Personally, I'm hesitant to get started. It sounds practical, but I wonder if it's really useful on a daily basis or if it's just another thing to manage... And besides, isn't it a bit intrusive? Have you already tested it?

Tracking emails is an intrusive technique, I created a Chrome extension to protect user's privacy by blocking email tracking and tracking links in Gmail, if you are interested check Gblock