Companies email me.
Companies I don’t care about email me.
Companies I know and trust email me.
Companies who I think are sincere and who want to do things “the right way” email me. I want to read their emails. Often, I want to act on them and sometimes I may even respond to their messages.
I’m a seasoned pro. I have had a hand in sending thousands, if not millions, of emails. I know the game.
Yet, even I am surprised by the number of tracking pixels that have been blocked in my inbox since using HEY a few weeks ago.
# It’s not just the bad guys
I got a message today from a small web business who I know and I trust. They are on the right side of the privacy fence, in my view. But, even they were using a tracking pixel.
Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I assume that it’s because their bulk email sender includes it. And there’s no option to remove it.
But, by blocking these pixels, it’s so liberating to think that I’m part of a world that recognises this kind of tracking isn’t okay. Even for companies and people I trust.
Beforehand, I’d been in this zombie state where I thought it couldn’t be questioned. I thought that using email meant people could track when you open it. And I thought that by sending a marketing email, it was my right to know who opened it and when.
That’s so wrong!
Not to mention, every time a tracking pixel fires, another row appears in a database somewhere. That costs real energy and is a vast and unseen waste that we should all be working to reduce. It is a fact that most of this mountain of tracking data isn’t even used.
Thanks to HEY for giving me a different option. An option that means I get to decide who knows what happens to my email. And, hopefully, reduces the digital waste I produce.