Online data tracking has continuously been rampant these days as hacking, intense advertisements, and the selling of personal data become a threat to the population.
ProtonMail, a privacy-focused email provider, has launched a new feature that aims to prevent advertisers from monitoring customers who read their emails.
Hiding users' IP addresses from third parties, securing a users' location, and eliminating tracking pixels seen in newsletters and advertising emails are some of the enhanced tracking features.
Online Data Tracking
The company explains that tracking pixels collect a lot of user data, such as when the email was viewed, how many times it was opened, which devices were used to read the email's contents, and the reader's IP address, according to Techradar
ProtonMail adds that all of this information is acquired and distributed without user agreement and that the situation is exacerbated when it is shared with third parties.
In that instance, the user's online activity can be traced across the web and linked to their email address, further molding their online profile.
ProtonMail
ZDNet stated that as part of a new improved tracking protection function, ProtonMail said that it will prevent tracking pixels and hide IP addresses.
In a blog post, Lydia Pang of ProtonMail stated that viewing emails should be as private as our end-to-end encryption makes sending them.
Pang stated that they are excited to launch enhanced tracking protection, a feature that will provide an additional layer of privacy to a user's inbox. This added layer of security would allow users to read emails without the threat of advertisers watching over a user's activity. In addition, this will prevent curated advertisements from a user's email behavior.
According to ProtonMail, an extra layer of privacy will be provided to users. The company stated that ProtonMail subscription protects the users on the web through:
Securing a user's location to remain private through hiding their IP address from third parties.
Hamper senders from spying on a user's email by blocking the tracking pixels that are usually found on promotional and newsletter emails.
Tracking Private Email
Bleeping Computer reported that according to a 2017 online data tracking study, trackers that send information back to the sender are found in over half of all emails sent and received.
The time a recipient opened an email, how many times it was revisited, what device was accessed, and the recipient's IP address are all included in the data.
To expose the recipient's information to third parties, or simply to monitor when someone has read your email is called de-anonymization and is also another reason why these trackers are being used.
Furthermore, aside from de-anonymization, targeted advertising is also the predominant usage of email trackers.
The best approach to unsolicited tracking and collection of data is to block them, however, regulating tracking on the web is more complex.
Email Tracking Protecting
However, if users don't want to use ProtonMail but still want to avoid online data tracking, it is recommended to disable image/resource loading in their email clients.
The option of disabling the source is a feature available in Thunderbird, Outlook, Gmail, and Apple Mail, and it should be sufficient to prevent most trackers from loading.
For another added layer of protection, users can read their communications in plain text and they can disable HTML email entirely.
Unfortunately, doing this comes with a few hiccups along the way and is not advised for a pleasant user experience, although it may be useful in situations where privacy is crucial.
