On: MailTrackerBlocker – email tracker and spy pixel blocker plugin for Apple Mail

[imposterr]

Many email providers have dealt with this by proxying all external image links in emails through their own services.

See Gmail: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/145919?p=display_imag...

See Fastmail: https://fastmail.blog/2014/09/16/better-security-and-privacy...

Although, I'm not sure if these protections extend to those using third party email clients with these services.

[techsupporter → imposterr]

> I'm not sure if these protections extend to those using third party email clients with these services

In Fastmail's case, those protections don't extend. I've tested this and Fastmail rewrites the image URLs when viewing through their webmail client but passes the message unmodified when fetching via IMAP.

I understand why they'd do this but I'd love to have a setting that says to do this privacy rewrite when using an external client.

[imposterr → techsupporter]

Thanks for clarifying. Might be worth shooting them a message to ask for this feature. They've always been good about fixing bugs and at least responding to requests, even if they decide not to pursue it.

[jabroni_salad → imposterr]

Some 3rd party antispam products also follow all the links they can find gauge their intent.

My company's marketing department has complained about this after noticing that our own clients have a 100% click rate. It's because we are reselling Barracuda.

[m463 → jabroni_salad]

I think that's an interesting take on it. Sort of like the adblockers that go the other way and click on ALL the ads.

If you can load all images at reception time (and put them somewhere), maybe that gives less information.

Of course it might give them a clue about your spam processing if it comes first and those don't get loaded.

[upofadown → imposterr]

That only blocks your IP address. They still know you looked at the email and when you opened it. That is the most valuable information.

[csunbird → upofadown]

No, it does not. By downloading the images to Gmail's/mail providers cache, they are effectively giving the impression that the user opened the mail just when it was delivered. The mail provider then shows their cache when you open the mail, the tracker will not work.

[upofadown → csunbird]

Neither provider is claiming that they download images as a matter of course. From the provided links:

Gmail: "Sometimes, senders may know whether you've opened an email that has an image."

Fastmail: "Clarified that the image server cannot see where the request came from. It may still be able to determine who the request came (ie email address validation) if the image URL has some kind of tracking data in it."

[csunbird → upofadown]

> Clarified that the image server cannot see where the request came from. It may still be able to determine who the request came (ie email address validation) if the image URL has some kind of tracking data in it.

They will know if the mail reached or not, but they will not know if the mail was opened. Because, it is possible that you never open the mail but the image is still downloaded to the fastmail server.

[rmccue → imposterr]

Gmail’s don’t extend, at least via the IMAP API.