You won’t be able to avoid all of the trackers that can hide in your email this way, but you will stop many of them. There is also a simple, basic step you can take to avoid trackers: stop your email from automatically loading images, since images are where the majority of these pixels hide. And extensions such as Ugly Email and PixelBlock have been developed to block trackers on Chrome and Firefox. For example, since 2014, Google has served all images in Gmail through its own proxy servers, which could hide your location from at least some tracking applications. There have been some attempts to restrict the amount of information that can be transmitted this way. When the email is opened, code within the pixel sends the info back to the company’s server. How does it work? A single tracking pixel is embedded in the email, usually (but not always) hidden within an image or a link. They’re also tracking whether you’ve opened the email, when you opened it, and where you were at the time by using software like Mailchimp to embed tracking software into the message. All of those obnoxious marketing emails that crowd your inbox aren’t just pushing a product.
