---
title: "Don't rely on tracking pixels · Agent Wranglers"
url: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/email-privacy/tracking-pixels
updated: 2026-10-20
licence: "All rights reserved"
---

# Don't rely on tracking pixels

By Erik Bergstedt, Agent Wranglers. Updated 2026-10-20.

- Level: Recommended
- Chapter: [Email privacy](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/email-privacy)
- Rule: Avoid tracking pixels, and never make a decision on open data alone. Where you do track opens, say so and get consent where the law asks for it.
- How: Apple Mail's privacy protection loads remote images for every message, whether read or not, through Apple's own servers. Opens from Apple Mail therefore look like reads, at the wrong time and place. Some other clients block remote images by default. Measure clicks, replies and actions on your site instead. In the EU, a pixel that reads whether someone opened a message needs consent.
- Check: List every automation, segment and report rule. None triggers, scores or removes people on opens alone. Each uses clicks, replies or actions instead, or needs one as well.

**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/tracking-pixels`.

- Next: [Keep personal data out of links](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/email-privacy/private-links)
- [Email privacy](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/email-privacy)