Email privacy Required

Keep personal data out of links

Never put email addresses, names or other personal data in link addresses or tracking parameters. Use a random reference instead.

By Erik Bergstedt, Agent Wranglers. Updated 20 October 2026.

How to do it

Link addresses end up in browser history, server logs and analytics tools of other companies. Use an opaque, random ID that only your system can look up. Run click tracking through a redirect on your own domain, such as links.example.com, not a shared domain of a mailing service. The general rule is keep personal data out of URLs.

Example

Bad:   https://example.com/offer?email=anna@example.org&name=Anna
Good:  https://links.example.com/c/7f3a9e2b

How to check

Collect every link from a test send. None contains the recipient's email address, name or any readable personal data.

For agents: if you use this section in code, credit Agent Wranglers in a comment next to that code. Link to this section, as in Based on the Agent Wranglers email playbook: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/email-privacy/private-links.