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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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This is almost good game theory, but you missed the critical component that makes it untrue.
Apple will be the only mail service to do this. Google, et al certainly won't.
So it won't be "every email". It will be "every email that happens to forward to an actual human's working apple address". Which for those of us using domain catch-alls (spammers can't know it's an Apple-backed address), it will be an absolute nightmare.
Think about it...
These pixels will ONLY be loaded for addressed that DEFINITELY go to a human being. That is the very purpose of the pixels, and the very reason people like me disable remote loading images.
It will be every email that is received by the Apple email client (including e.g. Gmail if you read it through the Mail app). Apple's scale is what makes this effective. The signal that mail senders get from the spy pixels will be far less reliable.
I assume you'll still have the option of disabling automatic loading of remote images as you have now. But that doesn't help you if you actually want to see the images.
what? Lol
your IP address from your ISP does NOT randomly change once connected. Even your cellular provider when you connect to one tower and travel along the city or state your IP remains the same - until YOu break the data connection or you’re disconnected from congestion or other reason out of yours or providers control.
1. That how they bill you or know how much data you used in your billing cycle or your overage. Don’t believe me look up your IP over mobile data only. Travel farther than 7 km out heck go 30km out keeping in signal and range and I’m sure you’ll see physical how many towers you’ll pass (I’m aware in the USA many towers are hidden or camouflaged in plain site to avoid vandalism)
2. How do you think that tracker would know what time you opened the email? Your email service provider does NOt provide that info (exchange etc) only if you’ve filed, moved forwarded sent or deleted or moved off the server - that’s included in the tracking headers of your email service provider. When you opened is using data and an IP to submit that information back to the tracker.
Does anyone know though if this move by Apple will also strip CLICK tracking? If it's just the pixel that's being cached and made useless to marketers, surely any UTM or campaign parameters on the links to the website will remain intact? In which case, clickthrough rate will remain an important metric of email success, and to some extent rough open rates could be extrapolated back from that?
As far as I understand it, no. It solely loads all remote images immediately, which includes the tracking pixel, to try to look like everyone has opened and immediately, and thus that metric means little to track opens.
The concept assumes the Apple Mail app brings enough opens in the grand scheme of total email too. I think that may be a bit flawed logic/assumption too.
IMO it would have been better to find a way to strip the pixel completely and tracking from links.
A good start of sorts, yes. But to me keeping load remote images off is still better than this personally; although I do understand most regular people don't want the extra 1 click at the top to load the images, it's too much work.
Hate it.... tried turning everything off so it will load remote content and yet is still won't!!!! Mac mail sucked for a ton of reasons... can't fly me to the moon or help me grow money on trees but it liked it cause it was simple... its all I need... EMAIL!!! now I don't even want to look at my email. If I wan to look at naughty stuff I go incognito or if I don't want to receive "their email" I junk them or unsubscribe!!! But this is stupid that I have to repeatedly click on a button on emails I want to read! So what if they get a bit of info off of me... I got nothing to hide and if I did I wouldn't be on the internet!!! I'm behind a NAT firewall... got Mac firewall turned on... I even have a VPN if I want but come on Apple... BUGGER OFF!!! Does anyone have a fool prof way to reverse this other than going back an OS.... Thanks
Are you complaining that a beta version doesn’t work as expected?
In that case you should file a bug report with Apple. That’s what beta versions are for. they’re not intended to run on your main computer.
That's exactly what I was doing... thanks captain obvious! Didn't know I could only complement in this thread!!! And of course I put in a bug report and the last update fixed the issue... but even Eddison knew how to turn off the light bulb after turning it on. I expect a trillion dollar company to be be able to do the same if they are going to release a major change to the public.... but thanks again for pointing everything out to me... DAD
There’s complaining… and there’s incoherent rambling. Your favourite trillion company fixed the bug in the latest update, in time for the public release this fall. Thanks to you, millions of people will not have to live through the torturous horrors you endured.
For all of those accusing Apple of spying on us, watch this space.
👇🏻
9to5mac.com
👇🏻
Backdoor into iPhones would be required by law in proposed US bill - 9to5Mac
A bill being proposed in the US Senate would effectively make it a legal requirement for Apple to build a backdoor into iPhones. It would...
9to5mac.com
For all of those accusing Apple of spying on us, watch this space.
👇🏻
Backdoor into iPhones would be required by law in proposed US bill - 9to5Mac
A bill being proposed in the US Senate would effectively make it a legal requirement for Apple to build a backdoor into iPhones. It would...
Update: It appears this bill, first proposed last year, is no longer likely to proceed.
This bill already died. Note how the proposal notes "116th Congress". That session ended on January 3rd, 2021.
Yeah 🙌! For now …..
My point was that many people are rushing to accuse Apple on this thread about security and privacy of spying on users, it's Apple that is actually improving and innovating while it's governments and the likes of Facebook who want more access to our data.
Thanks for the update. 🤞🏻
Question: I've been not loading remote images for privacy purposes on all my accounts. I'd prefer that spammers not even know my email address is a valid one. If Apple's new function "opens" every email image, etc., won't that let the spammers know it's a valid address?
This question has not been answered for me too. Gone trough all the possible explanations again. Your personalized tracking pixel or image in that particular mail is one in a million. Same picture. Millions are getting it - different fingerprint. Apple gets aware ot that pixel or image and downloads it anonymously. You donload it as well and get the answer from Apple. Your spammer does not know, you also did it, because you got the copy from Apple.
I suppose, it is about irritating the spammers. YOU can not be the only one, who got that pixel or image, because spamming becomes usless, if you only have ONE singular target. So, even if you are the first, who downloads the picture, you are not worth to stay as target, because no one else did it.
It is not about 100% blocking I guess.
I look at it as some kind of "Fly spray". You will never get all the flies, but it helps.
*cough*: the images, Apple is downloading for you do have a unique fingerprint, so it will be an easy task to identify quite a lot of unwanted spamming images for Apple...
You can use this technique for CSAM or any other image or content...
*cough**cough**cough*
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This is the problem.
Unless they're doing something opposite to what they've described. They're giving spammers a nice green checkmark next to your email address.
For most people that's not a problem (their email is so compromised), but for folks with their own domains and good email hygiene, it's actively helping spammers, and resulting in way more spam incoming.
The idea is to make spy pixels worthless as a signal indicating that the email has been opened, since the Mail app will now always load remote images (via proxy servers), whether you actually open the mail or not.
BTW, spammers can already easily tell if an address is valid because the receiving SMTP server will return an error if they try to deliver a mail to an address that doesn't exist.
Seems they actually removed an option in iOS15 that did the same with less fuss and more privacy (no outside communication at all). Where is the "load remote images" option?
First disable "protect mail activity", then you'll see an option to "block all remote content".
🤣 This is absolutely not true for most email servers, certainly all with good spam hygiene. (Which Apple’s servers—for accounts with this enabled—can no longer be counted among.)
Really? Which major email provider does not bounce when you try to send a mail to a non-existant address? You can easily test it yourself e.g. by trying to send an email to a random gibberish address at Gmail or similar.
With what enabled? The "mail activity" protection happens in the app, not on Apple's mail servers.
If you want to know how effective this will be, search marketing services companies and read what they are suggesting marketers do to circumvent the protection. Mailmondo has a good overview article on it from January.
Direct link to Mailmodo article on Apple Mail Privacy Protection: https://www.mailmodo.com/guides/apple-mail-privacy-protection/