Google has reactivated the automatic loading of images in its e -mail service Gmail. But to prevent that the sender know too much about the user by tracking pixels Google's own proxy server plays in between.
In e- mail marketing tracking pixels are often used, which are recharged by the E- mail client to determine if an email was opened, and find out more about the receiver.
Because the tracking pixel is loaded, the e -mail client sends an IP address to the sender, which can thus roughly determine the whereabouts. Using personalized URLs can thus also determine whether a particular e- mail address is being actively used, for example, to send there more spam. And in webmail clients can sometimes examine other information using referrer.
To prevent this, many e -mail clients only load images when the user explicitly requests it, and save the settings for each sender. Google has taken some time ago to Gmail this way, but now opted for a different solution.
Immediately Gmail invites in an e -mail may contain images back automatically. But in order to protect the privacy of users while Google proxy server switches between, on which the images are cached.
This prevents that referrer data arrive at the sender. In addition, Google can filter the files as malware and block images if it have any malicious code.
However it can be with a personalized URL continue to determine whether an email has been opened and there is the actual e -mail account because Google will load the images only when the user opens the respective e-mail.
Gmail provides the ability to disable automatic loading of images and restore the old behavior. For desktop users, the automatic loading of images from today should be enabled for mobile users from the beginning of 2014.
