Yes I do. When all the images are gone, the bad of the bad are not readable and thus go to ignore or trash. Teaches my personal senders to behave or who cares, garbage can. Tough love!
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Apple Putting a Stop to Email Tracking Pixels With Mail Privacy Protection in iOS 15 and macOS Monterey
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I use Outlook and Gmail. Both allow me to block images by default. I can then choose to display images in one email or always display images from that sender. Hopefully Apple Mail will allow that kind of flexibility.
Those images are usually added as attachments are cannot be tracked. It's the image tags with links to remote images that are trackable.
That will work with all our emails adresses like outlook, gmail, private domaine names or only with .mac adresses?
Yeah, it's so common to log IP addresses for non-snooping reasons that I can only imagining very extreme websites not logging them. And users of those ought to have VPNs, proxies, etc if they're so worried, not just trust the website.
I’ve had the ability to load remote content disabled for years. It will be great to suddenly be able to turn it on again without worrying about it.
Pfft - "advertisers are 'surprised.'" Surprised by what, exactly? That secretly tracking and gathering data on the end-user, in general, let alone as a business model, is sketchy af? That they may have to actually do better, be more innovative, or - gasp - try a more honest approach to earning my eyeballs/trust/wallet?
Where's my tiny fiddle?
I'm ALL IN on privacy and better control/say over my digital footprint. Secretly, or even unapologetically, profiting off my digital footprint is super lame/lazy/sleazy. The amount of users that don't seem to care about this is staggering. That so many can call for building walls to keep others out while simultaneously tossing out the welcome mat for any faceless online scumbag is not only hilarious but oddly confounding. To each their own, I suppose.
Personally, I'm grateful that the keeper of my family's digital info takes privacy as seriously as they purport. While Apple's certainly not perfect here, they're light years ahead of anyone else in this regard and have been laying the groundwork for this for years. They had the foresight to anticipate the [obviously] critical nature our digital data would take in an increasingly digital world. That they actively chose "privacy" as a business model isn't a gimmicky marketing campaign. It's a smart, progressive approach that offers a meaningful differentiator in a space that demands thoughtful differentiation. Unlike most other business models in this space, both the consumer and Apple win. I'm super ok with that. And allow my wallet to speak accordingly.
Where's my tiny fiddle?
I'm ALL IN on privacy and better control/say over my digital footprint. Secretly, or even unapologetically, profiting off my digital footprint is super lame/lazy/sleazy. The amount of users that don't seem to care about this is staggering. That so many can call for building walls to keep others out while simultaneously tossing out the welcome mat for any faceless online scumbag is not only hilarious but oddly confounding. To each their own, I suppose.
Personally, I'm grateful that the keeper of my family's digital info takes privacy as seriously as they purport. While Apple's certainly not perfect here, they're light years ahead of anyone else in this regard and have been laying the groundwork for this for years. They had the foresight to anticipate the [obviously] critical nature our digital data would take in an increasingly digital world. That they actively chose "privacy" as a business model isn't a gimmicky marketing campaign. It's a smart, progressive approach that offers a meaningful differentiator in a space that demands thoughtful differentiation. Unlike most other business models in this space, both the consumer and Apple win. I'm super ok with that. And allow my wallet to speak accordingly.
That solution is only reasonable for most people if the email loads, with images, as expected. As soon as you add an extra step of having to approve the HTML download for display the solution is inconvenient and annoying.
Apple knows that the goal is to reach zero steps. Anything more and people won't enable it.
It’s worth remembering that we’re on a tech site forum. The vast majority of Apple’s customers have no idea what remote images are, and certainly won’t know how to turn them off. This will be a great feature for most people.
If it auto-verifies every received email (across all my burner addresses, within apple or without), then it is a HUGE step backwards.
In the meantime, download and install the Lockdown app.
Lockdown Privacy: VPN & Proxy
Lockdown blocks trackers and badware in all your apps, blocking an estimated 100 million trackers per month for over 300,000 people. — Comprehensive Protection — Lockdown has two privacy features: Firewall and Secure Tunnel VPN. Each feature protects you from different threats, creating the...
apps.apple.com
It comes with the ability to block email trackers in apps as well.
But it does load. IDK who other than spammers send emails that rely on remote content. If it's really a problem, they could auto-enable remote images for senders in your contacts or senders for whom you've allowed remote content before, similar to what iMessage does for URL previews.
... but what about the small and local businesses that depend on these tracking pixels? Tracking pixels help keep email free. This is just Apple stealing all that ad revenue and tracking data for themselves. Absolutely absurd!
Why can’t advertisers just learn to advertise? Why do they have to be thieves and sleaze bags?
I'd think that if every email gets verified then verification ceases to provide any useful data.
I’m not sure why there are people that were bashing Apple for this. Sure it might not be a perfect solution, but at least Apple is trying and doing something about it. Meanwhile the rest of tech companies are at the other side. Am I missing something here? Considering how technology has become integrated with our lives, I’m glad that there at least one company that is still trying to do something about privacy, in the climate where the rest are looking to get your data.
My only annoyance with Apple that they paired these features with OS upgrades. Why can’t they just update the mail.app so people who are stuck on older OSes (because Apple drop their hardware from support) can benefit?
My only annoyance with Apple that they paired these features with OS upgrades. Why can’t they just update the mail.app so people who are stuck on older OSes (because Apple drop their hardware from support) can benefit?
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What does local business and free email have to do with with the other? Most businesses, even small ones, have paid email services with their hosting company. Small businesses also pay for bulk/marketing emails.
Big fan.
Tracking when you've opened up an email and what you've read is something that many companies and advertisers rely on for their marketing efforts, plus there are email clients out there designed to let users know when the emails they've sent have been opened up.
Much of this tracking is facilitated by remote images that load when viewing an email, and some of it is even sneakier, with advertisers using invisible tracking pixels. Tracking pixels are hidden graphics that you might not see in an email, but your email client loads them, allowing senders to gather data from you. Senders can see that you've opened an email get other information, such as your IP address.
With iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey, Apple is putting a stop to email tracking with a suite of Mail Privacy Protection features.
Mail Privacy Protection is not enabled by default, but Apple will highlight it as an option when you upgrade to iOS 15 or iPadOS 15. If you're running one of these updates, you can turn it on in Settings > Mail. Tap on "Privacy Protection" and then toggle on "Protect Mail Activity." In macOS Monterey, open up Mail, go to the Mail Preferences, and then click on Privacy. From there, toggle on Protect Mail Activity.
When enabled, Mail Privacy Protection hides your IP address and loads all remote content privately in the background, routing it through multiple proxy services and randomly assigning an IP address.
Here's how Apple describes the feature in full:It's worth noting that senders will see an IP address that corresponds to the region where you're located, giving them generic information about your behavior that is non-specific and cannot be used for building a profile of your behavior.
You could previously block email trackers by blocking the loading of remote content in the Mail app on iOS and macOS, but Apple's new feature is superior because you can still view all email content as normal while Mail Privacy Protection works in the background with no visual compromises.
Email senders can still monitor your behavior with tracked links that you will need to be mindful of, but the behind the scenes tracking that you might not notice won't happen.
Mail Tracking Privacy pairs well with iCloud Private Relay, a feature that's included in iCloud+. iCloud+ is just Apple's name for its paid iCloud plans, which start out at $0.99 per month. With that $1 per month, all the traffic that leaves your device is routed through two separate internet relays so advertisers can't see your IP address or location, nor can they link your browsing history to this information to build a profile about you.
iCloud Private Relay is not quite a VPN, but it's similar, and it's an incredible feature for the less technically inclined that would not think to use a VPN or wouldn't know how, such as elderly people who need the most protection from tracking and scams.
Apple's plans for iCloud Private Relay and Mail Tracking Privacy are already worrying advertisers, according to a report earlier this week from The Wall Street Journal. Ad-measurement firm Branch Metrics' CEO Alex Austin said that Private Relay could be "vastly more damaging to the advertising ecosystem than the App Tracking Transparency measures implemented early this year. "If IP were to go away entirely, it would be very challenging for a lot of companies to operate," he said.
As for Mail Privacy Protection, advertisers are "surprised" that Apple blocked tracking in emails because of how much harder it will be for brands to know if their emails are working.
These new privacy features could spur Google to adopt similar measures for Chrome, and a Google spokesperson confirmed that Google is indeed considering similar features for blocking IP addresses.
iCloud Private Relay and Mail Privacy Protection alone are enough reason to upgrade to the newest software when it becomes available this fall, but the rest of the features coming in iOS 15 and macOS Monterey can be found in our roundups.
Article Link: Apple Putting a Stop to Email Tracking Pixels With Mail Privacy Protection in iOS 15 and macOS Monterey
I’m not sure, but it seems like this feature makes it slightly harder for companies to track you but easier for scammers to determine that your email is valid & live. If Apple loads all content remotely behind the scenes then yes your IP address is hidden but a scammer will know that this email address is valid and live and continue to send junk. It seems like don’t load content + private relay is better than the mail protection.
Also I imagine most companies would use multiple tracking features. I.e. invisible tracking pixel plus personalised banner. And regardless of whether they do this, if every email looks like it was opened immediately because apple loaded it behind the scenes, when it is manually opened it will be easy to determine the email was read/opened by a human. If you then open any links manually will the IP address shown be different from web access as opposed to the email. If so wouldn’t this be easy to connect the dots and continue creating a profile, possibly connected to your real IP address unless you are also using private relay.
It seems like it would be better if content was blocked from automatically loading (I.e. current feature available) and if opened & content is manually loaded use private relay for added privacy.
Also we don’t know how often the IP address for mail protection & private relay changes. This would be important factor.
Also I imagine most companies would use multiple tracking features. I.e. invisible tracking pixel plus personalised banner. And regardless of whether they do this, if every email looks like it was opened immediately because apple loaded it behind the scenes, when it is manually opened it will be easy to determine the email was read/opened by a human. If you then open any links manually will the IP address shown be different from web access as opposed to the email. If so wouldn’t this be easy to connect the dots and continue creating a profile, possibly connected to your real IP address unless you are also using private relay.
It seems like it would be better if content was blocked from automatically loading (I.e. current feature available) and if opened & content is manually loaded use private relay for added privacy.
Also we don’t know how often the IP address for mail protection & private relay changes. This would be important factor.