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Posted on 2021-02-18
Apparently, this gemlog is my new place for rants… And this time is it about all the links I've seen today regarding "2/3rd of emails having trackers".
I am, like I think everyone reading this on gemini, a very privacy focus internet user. And thus I'm always trying to understand the level of data I leave behind myself. I am pragmatic though, and I know that whatever I do I will leave some but at least I try to limit where and when I can and more importantly when it makes the most sens too. But this is not the topic of this gemlog, as I don't think any gemini reader would learn anything from me on that :)
Anyway… This morning I think the one of the first article I saw was about tracking emails. I saw it via a toot on mastodon linking an article of the BBC[1] titled « Spy pixels in emails have become endemic ». The article describe the use of tracking pixel included in the email content. It allows to track things like did the user open or not the email (and how many times it has been opened), with which device, etc…
1: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56071437
I was very surprise, not by the content of the article, but by its virality of it (I've seen it on reddit and HN and a lot of other copy cat type of article relating the same things). I mean… This has been in place for years and used massively by all big and not so big corporation. This is because in the current web, everything is about monetization, data aggregation and conversation, but this also, is a topic for another day.
I always find it funny when something like this is "discovered" and makes at some point a lot of noise. Nothing new, not more than before, maybe more optimized for sure but definitely not a 2021 news… Why is this getting out now? I don't know but this won't change much… I don't see people starting to block external content (or not clicking on "load external images" link anyway if they do)…
Also, what really makes me laugh is that if you go on any of the sites that showed this "news" today, they all have a massive amount of trackers on them… It is really «the pot calling the kettle black» as British people say (or as we say in French, « c'est l'hôpital qui se moque de la charité »).
Anyway, I'll conclude with saying that emails is a great system to communicate in an asynchronous way with good resilience… But it took a really wrong turn when it clients started accepting and render html within them… I'm still a (neo)mutt user myself so I still fight for this lost battle of plain text email (more and more providers or mailing list send email in html only now), but I know it is a lost cause. I can only convince people I'm exchanging email with to at least provide a text version…
It is a frustrated situation, but using the right email readers and acting responsively with emails is still possible. It is not the case with the web though that is far lost… And this is why I think gemini is so great (and not for everyone nor for every use cases :)).
Another useless rant… Maybe I need to find more positive gemlog type of post in a very near future :D