How to Identify Email Trackers?
Everyone seems to be tracking everyone movement online these days, either through an app on your phone or using cookies. Therefore, it shouldn’t be a surprise that companies are also tracking you through emails. These companies track individuals by inserting a small invisible 1x1 pixel, which when the receiver opens the email, they know exactly when you have opened it, they know your location, the device you are using and if you had click on a link in the email. This is an trick that are used by marketing companies to see if you’re opening their email and paying attention to them. I was curious about which companies were tracking me and how. Therefore, I took things in my own hands and downloaded a plugin onto google chrome known as Ugly Email. This plugin detects trackers and will show an eyeball in the subject line if they suspect a tracker is hidden inside the email. One of the downside of this plugin is that it only works on Gmail accounts and on chrome browsers.
Once downloaded, I was surprised to see that my University, Ryerson University, was tracking me through the school newspaper called Ryerson Today. Not only were they tracking me through the school paper, but also through the Ryerson Science Society and Ryerson Career Center. This came as a big surprise since I did not expect that the school would be tracking me. Expedia and Liberal Party of Canada were also culprits.
You may be wondering now about how you should go about to protect your privacy. There is an old-school method to block these types of emails by setting your email to not load any pictures. Unfortunately, this isn’t the most desirable option since you don’t want to block all pictures being sent to you. Another option is to use plug-ins such as Ugly mail to make you aware about which companies are tracking you and what kind of trackers they are using. This allows you to delete these emails without opening it or simply avoid it all together. Another similar plug-in is PixelBlock. In this case, to see the eye icon, you would have to open the email but you do receive a bunch of other information such as the number of tracking attempts and the tracking widget used. Please note that there isn’t a method that are 100% effective due to the constant evolution of technology.