Email Tracking Pixels: Investigating Their Purpose and Impact on Deliverability

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes

Email tracking pixels help marketers understand how subscribers interact with their campaigns. But how much can you really learn from an email open? And with new privacy guidance emerging across Europe, is tracking every open still worth it?

A tracking pixel can provide useful campaign data, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Apple Mail Privacy Protection can affect open-rate accuracy, image blocking can hide genuine opens, and privacy rules may limit when you can track individual recipients. In this guide, we’ll explain how email tracking pixels work, what they can actually measure, how they affect campaign reporting and deliverability, and what email marketers need to know about the latest privacy requirements.

What Are Tracking Pixels?

Tracking pixels are small 1 x 1 GIFs that email marketers or email services embed in email HTML code to track when a recipient opened an email, where they did so, and how many times. Simply put, once an email is opened, the tracking pixel sends a signal to the server, which can be used to track the number of people who viewed your message and other metrics. You might have also heard other names for this mechanism, like web beacons, tracking bugs, web bugs, web tags, page tags, and pixel tags.

The secret is that users probably never see these tracking pixels, at least not with the naked eye, because they can be literally a single 1 x 1-pixel image, completely transparent, and hidden somewhere in the email body.

How Can Tracking Pixels Help in Email Marketing?

Email marketers typically use tracking pixels to monitor the effectiveness of their email campaigns, namely open rates, to measure the engagement level of their campaigns and other useful metrics:

• Whether the email was actually opened;
• Time and date when the recipient engaged with your emails;
• How long the session lasted;
• Distance the recipient scrolled down in the email;
• Interactions within the email: if any links were clicked and attachments downloaded;
• The IP address of the recipient;
• Geolocation based on the IP address;
• Device being used;
• The browser type;
• Email client of the recipient;
• Dark mode and light mode preferences of email clients (not all email tracking systems can offer this level of analytics granularity).

An email tracking pixel doesn’t automatically provide access to a recipient’s payment details or private browsing history. However, when a unique pixel identifier is linked to an email address, the sender may be able to associate tracking activity with a specific person. IP addresses and device information can also reveal additional details, depending on the email client and tracking setup. That’s why email tracking needs to be considered from both a technical and privacy perspective.

The information collected through email tracking can help marketers evaluate campaign performance and plan future emails. For example, open-rate data can provide some context when comparing subject lines or sending times, while click-through rates show which links attract attention. Both metrics have limitations, so it’s best to compare campaigns using consistent tracking settings and consider conversions and other meaningful actions as well.

Tracking data can also help identify subscribers who may need a different approach. For example, a prolonged lack of recorded opens might prompt a closer look at a contact’s activity. Before treating that person as inactive, however, check other signals, such as clicks, purchases, replies, and recent interactions. A missing open doesn’t necessarily mean the subscriber ignored the email.

The information collected from email pixel tracking can be very useful for optimizing future campaigns. For example, you can easily compare click-through rates with industry benchmarks, or analyze used subject lines used with the obtained open rates to try changing them to increase the chances of opening in the future.

Most of the information you’ll find in analytics or reports from your email service provider comes from tracking pixels. By analyzing how long a user interacts with each part of an email, email marketers can determine which pieces of content are most relevant to each recipient, thus making changes to segment their email lists and improve personalization. It works well for producing relevant content that subscribers need.

Privacy Concerns Regarding Email Tracking Pixels

Email tracking pixels often raise concerns about user privacy because they allow senders to collect data about recipients without their explicit consent.

Recipients may legitimately feel uncomfortable knowing that their actions are being tracked without their knowledge, potentially leading to distrust. With regulations such as the GDPR and CCPA prioritizing user privacy, email marketers must address these concerns transparently by providing clear disclosures and obtaining consent before using tracking technologies.

Tracking pixels are also affected by Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) feature, which prevents senders from reliably monitoring email openings and user activity. In short, when recipients use the Apple Mail app with the feature enabled, it downloads all remote content, including tracking pixels, in the background, regardless of whether the recipient actually opens the message. This action disguises the true open status, making it challenging for senders to accurately track email engagement. Additionally, MPP hides subscribers’ IP addresses, complicating location tracking.

This is a tricky question because, on the one hand, tracking pixels provide useful information to professionals, but at the same time raise great privacy and ethical concerns for recipients.

Email Tracking Pixels: Privacy Rules to Know in 2026

Email tracking pixels are coming under increased scrutiny from privacy regulators. In 2026, France and Italy issued specific guidelines regarding their use, while the UK updated its guidance on tracking technologies. The key question for email marketers is whether they have obtained permission to collect and utilize this data.

EU Rules on Email Tracking

At the EU level, the ePrivacy Directive provides the framework for rules on accessing information stored on a user’s device. The European Data Protection Board has clarified that this can cover email tracking pixels and tracked URLs. National authorities then apply these principles through their own laws and guidance.

The European Commission’s Digital Omnibus proposal could change parts of the digital regulatory framework, but a proposal is not law. Senders should follow the rules currently in force rather than assume future changes will apply.

France: Consent and Limited Exceptions

In April 2026, France’s data protection authority, the CNIL, published its final recommendation on email tracking pixels. Individual tracking for purposes such as measuring campaign engagement and personalizing emails generally requires prior consent.

The CNIL recognizes a limited exception for pixels used solely to manage deliverability, such as identifying inactive recipients so senders can reduce or stop sending to them. This exception comes with strict conditions, including limiting the data collected and retained. It does not permit using the same data for broader engagement analysis.

The CNIL also clarified the rules for older contact lists. The general three-month transition period ended on July 14, 2026. Senders should check whether their existing tracking practices meet the applicable requirements.

Italy: New Tracking Pixel Guidelines

Italy’s data protection authority, the Garante, adopted dedicated email tracking pixel guidelines in April 2026. They generally require prior, free, specific, and informed consent for individual tracking, with limited exceptions for certain technical, security, and service-related purposes.

The guidelines also emphasize clear information, simple consent withdrawal, and measures to reduce the identification of individual recipients. The six-month compliance deadline is October 29, 2026.

Email marketers should check how open and click tracking works, how consent is recorded, and whether tracking can be disabled for recipients who have not consented.

United Kingdom: Updated Tracking Guidance

In April 2026, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) published its final guidance on storage and access technologies. It covers tracking pixels alongside cookies, device fingerprinting, and similar technologies under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) and, where relevant, the UK GDPR.

This guidance is another reason businesses sending to UK recipients should review their tracking practices rather than treating email pixels as a separate, unregulated marketing tool.

What Should Email Marketers Do?

Check whether your email platform supports tracking consent separately from permission to receive marketing emails. Some platforms, including Klaviyo and Brevo, now offer controls to manage tracking at the recipient level.

Before making changes, review these points:

• Check your audience. Identify the countries your recipients are in and determine which requirements apply.
• Separate consent purposes. Permission to receive a newsletter does not automatically mean permission to track individual opens and clicks.
• Review your tracking settings. Check whether opens and clicks are tracked by default and whether you can disable individual tracking when required.
• Keep only the data you need. Don’t reuse deliverability-related data for engagement analysis or personalization if the applicable exception does not permit it.
• Make choices easy to change. Provide clear information about tracking and a straightforward way to withdraw consent where required.

Because the rules and exceptions differ by country and purpose, you may need to consult your privacy or legal team before changing your tracking setup.

How Can Users Protect Their Email from Being Tracked?

If users want to prevent their email from being tracked, there are several options available. For example, in Gmail, go to “Settings” and find the Images section. Then select “Ask before displaying external images”, which will disable email tracking pixels.

In Outlook Client or Microsoft Office 365, you just need to go to the Automatic Download section and select “Don’t download pictures automatically in standard HTML email messages”.

In Yahoo Mail, you can access this option in “Settings”, select “More Settings”, then “Viewing email”, and choose “Ask before showing external images” under “Show images in messages”.

To prevent images from auto-loading in ProtonMail, go to “Settings”, then “All settings” > “ProtonMail” and select “Email privacy”. Next, turn off “Auto show remote images” and turn on the option “Block email tracking”.

In Apple Mail, the “Mail Privacy Protection” option is turned on by default. You can check it in the “Protect Mail Activity” settings.

Therefore, if the recipient blocks pixels in the email, the tracking data will be inaccurate.

How Tracking Pixels Impact Email Deliverability

If you dive into email marketing forums and discussions, you can see multiple suggestions to disable tracking pixels when creating your campaigns, as they seem to trigger Gmail spam filters. Supposedly, by disabling email tracking, emails stop ending up in the spam folder of this provider. This connection between pixels and deliverability has become especially noticeable after the latest update to Google’s algorithm.

There has indeed been some crackdown on spam among the big email service providers. Some aggressive spam filters may flag emails containing tracking pixels as suspicious or potentially spam, especially if the pixel is associated with a known third-party tracking service.

Also, if a significant number of recipients block tracking pixels and minimally interact with emails for privacy reasons, this can potentially affect sender reputation with email service providers. As is known, a bad sender reputation can lead to emails being labeled as spam.

If you choose to use pixels for tracking, you should regularly run spam tests on your emails to ensure that they are reaching recipients’ inboxes and keep a check on the performance of your campaigns. A great tool for this is Inbox Insight by GlockApps, which helps you track your inbox placement, blacklisting status, sender score, IP reputation, spam score, HTML code analysis, and content insights, and provides valuable tips on how to optimize your overall performance.

Closing Thoughts

Email tracking pixels can provide useful campaign data, but an open is only a signal, not proof that someone read your email. Privacy features can distort open rates, and new regulatory guidance means senders also need to consider when and how they track individual recipients.

The practical approach is to collect only the data you need, check the tracking and consent settings in your email platform, and use more meaningful engagement signals alongside opens. Clicks, conversions, replies, and unsubscribe rates can tell you more about how recipients respond to your campaigns.

That’s why you need to study all the nuances related to email tracking pixels in detail and follow the best practices when using them. And when inbox placement is the concern, don’t rely on open rates to diagnose the problem. Test your emails, monitor delivery results, and investigate authentication, sender reputation, links, and message content to identify what needs attention.

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