AdGuard launches Mail Tracking Protection: stop invisible trackers in your inbox
Have you ever received an email and, just a few minutes later, had the impression that the sender somehow already knew you had opened it? Maybe it was a marketing email that instantly followed up with another message. Maybe a newsletter suddenly became more “personalized.” Or maybe you simply noticed ads related to something you had only read about in an email… Sounds creepy? That’s because it is.
Most people don’t realize that many emails contain invisible tracking tools designed to monitor what happens after you open a message. And unlike regular ads or popups, these trackers work completely silently in the background. That’s why we’re introducing AdGuard Mail Tracking Protection, a brand-new filter designed to block email tracking pixels and protect your privacy inside email apps and webmail clients.
What are email tracking pixels?
Email tracking pixels are tiny invisible images embedded into HTML emails. Usually, they’re only 1×1 pixels in size and completely transparent, so never notice them.
When you open the email, your email client automatically loads that image from the sender’s server. That single request can reveal a surprising amount of information, including:
- Whether you opened the email
- The exact time you opened it
- Your approximate location
- Your IP address
- Your device and email client
All of this happens silently in the background. To you, the email looks completely normal. But for the sender, it becomes a source of behavioral data. In other words, simply opening an email can turn into a tracking event.
This data is commonly used for marketing analytics, engagement scoring, ad targeting, and user profiling. And while some companies use tracking just for statistics, others rely on it aggressively to measure attention and optimize campaigns around your behavior.
The problem is that most users never explicitly agreed to this kind of monitoring, and often they don’t even know it exists.
Meet AdGuard Mail Tracking Protection
The new AdGuard Mail Tracking Protection filter blocks requests used to track user activity in emails. That means tracking pixels can no longer silently report back to senders when you open a message.
The filter works both in email apps protected by AdGuard and browser-based email clients through AdGuard Ad Blocker. It can help protect you while using apps and webmail services such as Apple Mail, Outlook, Spark, The Bat!, and Thunderbird.
How to activate AdGuard Mail Tracking Protection
To activate the filter, you’ll need to enable the option AdGuard Mail Tracking Protection. To do it:
- In AdGuard for Windows v8, go to Protection → Ad Blocking → Filters.
- In AdGuard for Windows v7.22, go to Protection → Ad Blocking → Add a filter.
- In AdGuard for Mac, go to Settings… → Filters → + button.
For AdGuard for Android, AdGuard for iOS, and AdGuard Browser Extension, the Mail Tracking Protection filter will be included in an upcoming update.
Leave your feedback
This is the first release of an AdGuard filter in a long time, and your feedback will help us improve it further. If you notice missed trackers, broken emails, or compatibility issues, please let us know by submitting a report through AdGuard’s Report an issue tool or directly on our website.
When you submit a report from within AdGuard, the relevant settings are filled in automatically, which is important for filter maintainers. You can find detailed instructions for reporting issues from all AdGuard products in our guide.
