Email tracking is a bit of a controversial feature. On one hand it is monitoring every opening and clicking of the tracked email and enters to the privacy of the user.
It can provide details such as which app the email was opened in, when it was opened, if it was a phone or a PC, or even details about your actual location, IP address and other personal details about you and your device. On the other hand, it might be a really powerful tool to improve the quality of a company’s marketing.
How does email tracking work?
The tracked email usually contains some sort of an invisible tracking image known as email tracking pixel or elements like hyperlinks or custom font. Once the content of the message is opened, the tracking image is downloaded and sends the information about the interaction to the sender. Clicking on a link or an external attachment can also activate the tracking.
Email tracking apps
Email tracking software and various email tracking tools are becoming more and more popular. Companies use them to track their marketing campaigns which will result in better sales strategy and increased quality of their business. So they often invest into email tracking software. One of the best email tracking software are apps such as GMass, Right Inbox, Salesforce Pardot, MailTrack, SalesHandy or Cirrus Insight.
Blocking the email tracker
But what if you are on the customer’s side and you would like to block the tracking? One of the best tools for the job is eM Client. It can detect a tracked message sent from an email tracking app. eM Client can show you if a message contains a tracking pixel and it can also block it so you could read the message without being afraid of sending any data to the sender without your knowledge. The best thing about eM Client blocking feature is the possibility to download external images without downloading the tracking pixel in the Pro version.
(If you need more information about email tracking in eM Client, check out this article about Email Tracking).
How do you find out if email is being tracked in eM Client?
Once you receive a tracked message and open it, eM Client will show you a little “Target” icon visible under the receive date in the message list.
Plus, in the message detail, a message
“Allow email tracking. Email tracking was blocked to preserve privacy” pops up. This means that eM Client blocked the download of the tracking pixel. Then, it is up to you whether you allow the tracking or not. To allow the tracking, you simply click on the blue text
“Allow email tracking.” in the message detail.
In the Free version of the product you will only have the option to download all external images (including the pixel) or block all.
To further manage the default behaviour of the email tracking in eM Client, open
Menu > Settings > Mail > Privacy > Email tracking and customise the settings.
Free email tracking Outlook
There are multiple solutions for free email tracking apps in Outlook. One of them is Intelliverse. It can show you real-time notifications when emails are opened, how many times and it even gives you the information about the device location. Other variants are for example Sidekick, Contact Monkey, Bananatag and SalesHandy.
Google email tracking
As is the case for Outlook, there are multiple solutions for Gmail as well. One of the most popular is Email Tracker. It is fairly simple and mostly tracks the opening of sent emails. Then there is a more complex solution for businesses called GMass. It is an advanced email tracking app with Campaign Dashboard. The others are Gmelius, MixMax, SalesHandy etc.
Download eM Client below to start a 30-day trial and see if it's the right email app for you!