AwarenessWho's tracking you online
Email tracking pixels
Newsletters and senders that record when, where and how often you open.
Understand it
A tiny invisible image in an email tells the sender the moment you open it, how many times, roughly where you are, and what device you used. Marketing email relies on it; so do some scammers, to confirm a live address.
How to spot it
You cannot see the pixel - but “we noticed you opened our email” is it at work.
Close the gap
- Turn on your mail app’s privacy protection - Apple Mail and others hide opens and your IP.
- Set your email not to load remote images automatically.
- Use an email alias for sign-ups, so a leak does not reach your real inbox.
- Unsubscribe from senders you do not recognise rather than opening to check.
What to do about it
There's no single off-switch for this. A tracker-blocking browser, refusing non-essential cookies, and the data-broker clean-up in your plan cut most of it down to size.