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Can an email tell the sender I opened it?
An email can contain an invisible image. When your email app loads it, the sender can learn that you opened the email. See what it sends, and how to stop it.
A simulation: nothing is loaded or sent from this page.
From: Shop Example · news@shop.example
20% off this weekend only
Hi! Here are this week's deals…
Hidden in the email: <img src="https://track.shop.example/open.gif?id=you" width="1" height="1">
What the sources say
- Proton describes these as “invisible images that notify the sender when you open the email”, which “can reveal details like your IP address and device type”.
- Apple Mail: Mail Privacy Protection “hides your IP address” and “prevents senders from seeing if you've opened the email”.
- Gmail: the setting “Ask before displaying external images” stops images loading until you choose. Google also says Gmail serves images through its own proxy servers.
- Classic Outlook is “configured by default to block automatic picture downloads”.
- Proton Mail removes known email trackers from emails that aren't end-to-end encrypted.