What Is A Tracking Pixel Link to heading

A Tracking Pixel is a technique found these days in Email marketing, promotions, newsletters and even casual notifications contents of Email campaign services. It inserts a transparent 1px x 1px image to the mail body that is invisible to human eyes and uses the good-old Web technology to send information to whoever’s on the other end collecting as many aspects as they want about the person who reads the Email:

  • Operating system
  • Device model
  • Type of the Email client
  • The reader’s screen resolution
  • When and how many times the Email was read or website visited
  • Activities on the website in a session
  • The IP address of the reader (this gives away the ISP information and even location based on some extremely precise GeoIP databases that are very easy to get)

A sample tracking pixel snippet from MailTrackerBlocker:

<a style="color: #770506;">
  <img src="http://cdn.website.com/newsletter/logo.png" width="438" height="42" border="0" style="max-width: 90%; height: auto" alt="logo.png">
</a>

<br>
<a href="https://website.us5.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=abdef">Click here to unsubscribe</a> or <a href="https://website.us5.list-manage.com/profile?u=abdef">Update subscription preferences</a>

- <img width="0" height="0" class="mailtrack-img" alt="" style="display:flex" src="https://mailtrack.io/trace/mail/0eabccbe98c98e9b8e9a8b89eab89ce9ab89e8bc.png?u=1234567">

Note that the highlighted line of code inserts the invisible pixel of image to the mail body.

Actually very few people ever noticed that their behaviours were tracked (or to say harvested) by the people who sent the Emails. But as soon as one realises it, bad feelings come pouring in: you don’t know which Emails have tracking pixels; you can never “opt-out” a tracking pixel; you don’t know exactly what information were collected by the trackers and what they plan to do with it.

How to avoid being tracked? Link to heading

If you are using a macOS computer, check out the open-source project MailTrackerBlocker. It’s a plug-in for the Apple Mail app. Actually the list above was sorted out using this plug-in.

Alternatively you can choose an Email service that provides tracking pixel blocking natively, like Hey (paid). In fact the makers of Hey mail made this website to stand up against tracking pixels: https://notospypixels.com

For blocking tracking pixels on other platforms, applications or Email providers, you can write to me and tell me your method or tools. I’d be happy to add them here.

Who Are Tracking Me Link to heading

To name just a few Email senders I’ve caught embedding the tracking pixels, here’s a list:

SenderFrom AddressTracking Pixel Service Provider
Sony PlayStation[email protected]Salesforce
Adobe[email protected]
[email protected]
Adobe
IFTTT[email protected]Customer.io
Nintendo[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
LinkedIn[email protected]LinkedIn
Duolingo[email protected]Amazon SES
Flickr[email protected]SparkPost
Lark Suite (a.k.a Feishu)[email protected]SendGrid
Bedroom Producers Blog[email protected]MailerLite
Trello[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Atlassian
Dropbox[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
CodeSandbox[email protected]Mailgun
Mapbox[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Customer.io
MapTiler[email protected]Google
Mapillary[email protected]SendGrid
Apple App Store[email protected]Apple
iCloud (GCBD)[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
Apple iTunes Connect[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
Apple Developer[email protected]Apple
Be My Eyes[email protected]
[email protected]
Postmark
Mixpanel
Goodreads[email protected]Amazon SES
Foursquare[email protected]SendGrid
Baidu[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
GitHub[email protected]GitHub
Microsoft[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Microsoft
Cloudflare[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
Sentry[email protected]Hubspot
Upwork[email protected]Upwork
AWS[email protected]Amazon SES
Facebook[email protected]
[email protected]
Facebook
Instagram[email protected]Facebook
Paypal[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
Return Path
Stripe[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
Auth0[email protected]
[email protected]
SendGrid
Mandrill
Airbnb[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
Coursera[email protected]SparkPost
Console.dev[email protected]Mailchimp
AudioThing[email protected]Mailchimp
BugSnag[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
Slite[email protected]SendGrid
GOG[email protected]Google
GetResponse
IMDB[email protected]Amazon SES
CloudApp[email protected]Customer.io
PreSonus[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
Internet Archive[email protected]Mailchimp
Box[email protected]spmailtechnol
IHG (A hospitality company)[email protected](Self-owned Tracker, more than 1 per mail)
TuringBook.com[email protected]Mailchimp
Raycast[email protected]SendGrid
RescueTime[email protected]Customer.io
Chatra[email protected]Postmark
Bandcamp[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
Craft.do[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
Journal[email protected]SendGrid
Mockaroo[email protected]Mailchimp
Ghost.org (A blogging software)[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
Asana[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
Remove.bg[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
uTalk[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
Envato[email protected]Mandrillapp
RapidAPI[email protected]Mailchimp
BundleHunt[email protected]Mailchimp
TIDAL[email protected]SendGrid
ClickUp[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Close
Clubhouse.io[email protected]
[email protected]
Intercom
SendGrid
Postman.com[email protected]Fastic
Taiga[email protected]SendGrid
Koingo Software[email protected]SendGrid
Lobe.ai[email protected]Salesforce
Native Instruments[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
Atlassian[email protected]Return Path
Twitch[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
JustFont[email protected]Google
JFrog[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
NameSilo[email protected]MailerLite
Riot Games[email protected]SendGrid
NASA Mars[email protected]iContact
Zeplin[email protected]Mailchimp
Pipedream[email protected]SendGrid
Google Payments[email protected]Google
Google Workspace[email protected]Google
Google Cloud Platform[email protected]Google
Climb App(hidden due to Apple Login)SendGrid
China Merchants Bank[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
Magoosh[email protected]SendGrid
Todoist[email protected]SendGrid
MuseScore[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
GitGuardian[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
SendGrid
Mailgun
Speed Dial 2[email protected]Postmark
Sococo[email protected]Mandrill
Chamaileon[email protected]Sendy
Browserstack Team[email protected]Mailchimp
Ultimate Guitar[email protected]Mailtrain
Bunny Studio[email protected]SendGrid
Waymo[email protected]Google
数码荔枝 lizhi.io[email protected]Mailchimp
Three Dots Labs[email protected]Mailchimp
Vercel[email protected]SendGrid
Guitar Pro[email protected]Mailchimp
Loom[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Intercom
Mandrill
Opstree[email protected]Hubspot
WeTransfer[email protected]SendGrid
Flim[email protected]Mailjet
Grab[email protected]Amazon SES
Pusher[email protected]Customer.io
Chess.com[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Fastic
SendGrid
SendGrid
Soundtoys[email protected]Mailchimp
italki[email protected]Amazon SES
Codecov[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
Wurkr[email protected]Hubspot
Coinbase[email protected]Fastic
Zapier[email protected]Litmus
HBO Max[email protected]SendGrid
Malaysia Kini[email protected]
[email protected]
Amazon SES
Book Depository[email protected]Litmus
Anytype[email protected]SendGrid
Change.org[email protected](Self-owned Tracker)
Flo[email protected]SendGrid
Medium[email protected]SendGrid
LingQ[email protected]
[email protected]
SendGrid
WordPress[email protected]WordPress
Leanpub[email protected]Mailchimp
Pocket Casts[email protected]Mandrill
Amazon Web Services[email protected]Amazon SES
Spotify[email protected]SendGrid
Los Angeles Valley Collage[email protected]iContact
StarWind[email protected]Hubspot
Product Hunt[email protected]Mailjet
Gengo Translator Team[email protected]SendGrid
Robinhood Snacks[email protected]SendGrid
Live2D[email protected]Mailchimp
JetBrains[email protected]Adobe
Docker[email protected]Mailgun
Discord[email protected]SendGrid
Skillshare[email protected]SendGrid
Kickstarter[email protected]SendGrid
MakeML[email protected]SendGrid
Roboflow[email protected]Customer.io
Unity[email protected]SendGrid
Otoy[email protected]Mailchimp
Memrise[email protected]SendGrid
Clozemaster[email protected]SendGrid
Descript[email protected]Customer.io
Heroku[email protected]Salesforce

It can go very long as more and more services I use. And I was tracked all the way long.

Update 2021-03-22: It appears that many of the “Self-owned Trackers” are not owned by the business owners. They don’t reveal the actual vendor by using the custom domain names. Certain tracing was done to discover the actual campaign Email sender and the tracker, which showed a certain pattern of how the custom domain names are formed. E.g. http://url1234.mail.some-service.io (certain parts were masked with dummy characters) points to the IP address that resolves to be in possession of SendGrid. Oh my they use the http that scatters people’s information all around the web un-encrypted while relentlessly collecting them.