'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean?
ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing.
When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers.
ZDNET's editorial team writes on behalf of you, our reader. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form.
How to block tracking pixels in Apple Mail (and why you might want to)
Third-party entities go out of their way to collect data from you. In your web browser they use tracking cookies extensively and nearly every browser on the market goes to great lengths to offer tools and features to protect you from the collection of that data.
Also: The best VPN services right now
You've probably heard about cookies and fingerprinting (which the Tor browser does a great job of blocking), but did you know there's a really sneaky way to collect your data from within an email client? The method in question uses invisible pixels (called tracking pixels) in an email to not only help a company see which emails you interact with but how you interact with them.
What are tracking pixels?
A tracking pixel is a 1px by 1px square image that is created from a simple line of code, inserted into a message, and is invisible to users because they are typically transparent and located somewhere innocuous (such as the header or footer of the email).
These pixels help companies (especially marketing firms) measure open/click rates, discover traffic sources, track conversions, and gather other data points. Specifically, tracking pixels empower companies with the following types of information:
How many people open emails and click-through links.
Provide a general success rate of an email campaign.
Devices used to read email.
Which email providers a recipient uses.
What region a recipient is located in.
Sounds like something many privacy-conscious users don't want or need. Fortunately, some email client developers are catching on to this tactic and have made it possible to protect yourself against them. One such client is Apple Mail.
Also: How to quickly fix Apple Mail when it's not working
Let me show you how to enable that protection, so you can avoid the dreaded tracking pixel.
How to block tracking pixels
What you'll need: I'm demonstrating with Apple Mail 15.0. This feature is built into macOS starting with Monterey, so if you're using an older version of macOS, you'll want to upgrade as soon as possible (which you should do anyway).
1. Open Apple Mail Preferences
To enable tracking pixel protection, open Apple Mail and click Mail > Preferences. Click the Privacy tab in the menu bar.
The Apple Mail Preferences window gives you quick access to a number of important configuration options.
2. Enable track pixels protection
In the resulting window, click the check box associated with Protect Mail Activity.
Protecting yourself from tracking pixels is but a check box away.
When you enable the feature, you'll notice that Hide IP Address and Block All Remote Content both are greyed out. That doesn't mean those features will be disabled but if you want to enable either of those options, do so before clicking Protect Mail Activity.
There's no need to restart Apple Mail, as the change will take effect immediately.
Also: The best browsers for privacy
With this option enabled, you no longer have to worry about tracking pixels collecting your data that can, in turn, be used by companies in the same way tracking cookies are used within a web browser.
Welcome to a more private email experience in macOS.