How to Know If Someone Is Tracking Emails They Send You
A few years ago, a friend who works at PR told me about Streak, an email tracking service that lets you know when someone opened a message you sent them, sometimes with details of where that discovery happened, and even about what device they were on when they read this.
He used it to see when journalists received the messages he sent them. While I wasn’t particularly thrilled that he and his colleagues were spying on whether I was actually reading what they were sending me, I loved the idea of flipping tables and using it myself.
I never really pay attention to where someone opens an email, but I must admit it’s nice to know they read it and prefer not to reply rather than wondering if it was sent to a black hole / inactive email account. mail.
As a user and recipient of tracked emails, I don’t care that I’m being tracked, just as I care that I don’t know about it. Ugly Email is a Chrome and Firefox extension that can help.
Once installed, it will display an eye icon next to any emails that use tracking software. It also blocks these trackers, so you’ll know what the sender intended to know when you opened the note.
Spoiler: That’s a lot of people. A quick scrolling through my own inbox found that not only emails from public relations representatives were being tracked, but emails inviting me to take part in the “Workweek Hustle” on Fitbit and check in for the upcoming flight.
It doesn’t block all existing tracks, but it does handle a pretty solid list of them. According to the company’s website , it now blocks MailChimp, SendGrid, Drip, Streak, Mailgun, Bananatag, Yesware, TinyLetter, Postmark, Sidekick, Boomerang and 20 others.
Even if you’re not too worried about people tracking you, it might be interesting to know who is doing it.