this answers my question: Ways to Avoid Email Tracking
By KATE MURPHY DEC. 24, 2014
nyti.ms
excerpt:
Or, you could simply turn off your Wi-Fi while opening and reading email messages. This, of course, assumes you aren’t checking your email on your provider’s website but rather using a retrieval program like Apple Mail or Outlook.
And don’t click on any attachment while connected, nor a link within the message, even if it’s the unsubscribe button. “The unsubscribe link is the most clicked item in emails so it’s often what they use to track you,” said H.D. Moore, a senior researcher with the Internet security consultant Rapid7. “As soon as you click on it, they know everything about you.”
Besides when, where and on what device you opened the message, an email sender can also tell how long you looked at the message and if you opened other windows while you had the message displayed. Also transmitted is if you saved, forwarded or deleted the message, how many times you subsequently opened the message plus various details about your device’s operating system and settings.
Analysis of this kind of tracking data is a standard service offered by bulk email providers like Constant Contact, MailChimp or HubSpot. These companies facilitate sending emails to large mailing lists and generate tracking reports so their customers can assess how well their messages are received. |
