There’s really only one feature I’m missing in eM Client: the ability to track whether and when an email has been opened.
I previously used Mailbird, where you could add a tracking pixel to an email with just one click. As soon as the recipient opened the message, you received a notification confirming that it had been read.
Of course, I’m aware that this can be a sensitive topic from a privacy and data-protection perspective. However, I found it extremely useful, especially for important emails where knowing whether the recipient has actually opened the message can make a real difference.
What do you think? Wouldn’t this be a useful feature for eM Client as well?
Email tracking without opt-in permission is an illegal practice, at least in the EU with its GDPR law, and yes, it’s a privacy issue - we do not plan to add this feature.
Not to mention, eM Client by default blocks tracking pixels and lets the user decide if they want to download it or not, so it would often not even work as tracking if the recipient uses eM Client
Not allowing tracking pixels to be downloaded is one of eMC’s greatest features, IMO. Basically, it’s none of anybody’s business if and when (or what more) I open a mail that’s sent to me.
There are services one cannot get rid of (banks, for instance), but that keep on bombarding you with useless advertising crap. I certainly don’t want to encourage them, but I have to open the mails to check whether, once in a blue moon, they might contain some relevant information.
That’s just one example. Tracking pixels are hateable, like all other tracking.
You can perfectly well run an online business without having to spy on customers (and more often than not, non-customers). Talking from experience, back when nobody was even dreaming of such things.
Obviously I don’t know any of your locations, however, that could be irrelevant.
In Europe under GDPR you need explicit permission to track (read confirmation) any EU resident’s emails,
whether they are prospects or customers, even if you are sending from outside the EU.
Without your recipients opting in to email tracking, GDPR legislation states you can not use email tracking to tell:
1,/ If an email you sent was opened and or read
2./ When that email was opened
3./ How many times it was opened
4./ If it was transferred to others
5./ To which email server it was sent, including its location
6./ What kind of web navigator and operating system the recipient of the email uses.
Be aware that if you are caught tracking without permission, subsequently prosecuted and convicted the punishments are severe.
skybat
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Very enlightening indeed. I wonder if the users of US-based services such as Salesforce, MailChimp, SendGrid or Mailjet are aware of these EU-norms. I just checked, these are the names related to some of the tracking pixels I found in mails from one of my banks, my utilities company, a very alternative online magazine, a newsletter from a charity and a very small online company — each one of them based in a different EU country. I’ve never noticed any mention of “tracking pixels” on their sites or in their material.
If they do know about the legislation, and considering that I practically always deny any service I sign up to the right to send me advertising material and the like, would a permission I might have granted inadvertently — maybe even unknown to some of the above — be buried at page 32 of those Terms and Conditions nobody ever reads?
