
Stop Email Tracking - Alir3z4
https://alireza.gonevis.com/stop-email-tracking/
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ColinWright
There's a reason why every successful social media platform has scummy,
creepy, privacy-invading practices. It's because if one doesn't do that, one
doesn't build an audience.

Ditto with email trackers ... if you don't do it, people will fall off your
list, and you won't build and retain your audience.

These practices work, and have emerged from the evolutionary processes of the
web in general. There's no point in lamenting them, because the muggles will
fall for them every time, and they will continue to become more invasive and
more unpleasant.

~~~
Nextgrid
> if you don't do it, people will fall off your list, and you won't build and
> retain your audience.

How? What does tracking have to do with people being interested in your
content? If you send good stuff, people will buy your things/services/etc and
you'll see it in your bottom line without tracking. A single, respectful link
to
[https://example.com/product?ref=email](https://example.com/product?ref=email)
to attribute the conversion to an email would be fine as well as long as it's
not per-user and does not involve third-parties (most tracking links out there
involve a third-party and obfuscate the final target link).

Furthermore there might be GDPR implications as well. IP addresses as well as
device fingerprints are definitely considered personal data, they are
inherently sent as part of loading the tracking pixels and yet open tracking
is not essential to providing the service, thus should be opt-in (and nobody
in the right mind would opt-in).

> These practices work, and have emerged from the evolutionary processes of
> the web in general.

Malware and spyware works as well, and yet we generally agree that it's a bad
and illegal thing to do. Why should this be any different?

~~~
ColinWright
I'm not arguing that it's a good thing, I'm observing that all successful
platforms engage in these practices. That implies that there might be a causal
or evolutionary link between the two.

Again, I'm not arguing that it's a good thing, but there is evidence (not
proof!) that if you _don 't_ engage in these practices then you won't be
successful.

Consider two mailing lists with content equally well suited to their
audiences. One engages in these practices, the other doesn't. The one who
engages in these practices has more information, and therefore has more
opportunity to tailor their content more precisely. Under evolutionary
pressure, the one engaging in these practices is more likely to survive.

I'm not arguing that it's a good thing, but I'm saying that there are reasons
why it's turned out like this.

