How to Stop Email Trackers on Your IPhone, IPad and Mac

You may already know that websites and apps are tracking you. Now it is so common that we don’t even blink an eye. But did you know that the same applies to email?

How email tracking works (and how Apple can help stop it)

With regard to email, tracking is done differently. Email marketers use different tactics to find out if an email was opened and when, what device it was on, and where you were when you opened it. They use tiny embedded hidden pixels to find out these details, and when an image is downloaded from their servers, they get all of your information.

One solution is to turn off images completely, but this is harmful for reading emails, especially newsletters. Apple has the best solution for you with Email Privacy Protection. This is a free feature available for iOS 15 , iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey devices.

Once enabled, Apple will route your email data through its private servers so that your IP address and personal information are not exposed to email marketers. This strategy will only work if you are using the Mail app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, but it supports all email addresses in the Mail app.

How to turn off email trackers on your iPhone and iPad

When you first launch the Mail app after upgrading to iOS 15, you’ll see a splash screen asking if you want to enable Mail Privacy Protection, but you can turn it on at any time in Settings.

Open the Settings app and choose Mail > Privacy Shield . Then turn on the ” Protect email activity ” feature and you’re done.

How to stop email tracking on Mac

This feature needs to be enabled separately on Mac. Open the Mail app on your Mac and click the Mail button in the menu bar. Select “Settings” (you can also use the keyboard shortcut Command + comma), click on the tab “Confidentiality” and turn on “Protect the postal activity.”

The Mail app will now hide your personal information from all kinds of trackers. On the other hand, if you want to hide your email from apps and services, you can use the built in Hide My Email feature available on paid iCloud + plans.

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