Inbox full of promo emails? 80% are tracking you, new report warns

"According to Proton Mail's new research, "Spam Watch: The US Inbox Overload + Hidden Tracker Report," 80% of US retailers now embed tracking technology in their marketing emails. Using a controlled Proton Mail inbox, the team captured every email sent by the largest US retailers (with physical locations) from Nov. 4 to Dec. 1. Each marketing email was linked to its timestamp, sender, subject line, and any embedded tracking links or pixels."

"The emails were then collated with public data on customer volume, including loyalty membership counts and benchmarks. This timeframe not only included standard, normal weeks, but also what Proton Mail calls "the surge" -- Black Friday, taking place on 28 November, through Cyber Monday, on Dec. 1. Based on this analysis, these companies send roughly 1.3 billion marketing emails per day during a standard week."

"During the shopping event and promotional period, however, this almost doubled, with around 2.55 billion emails sent day-to-day. So, billions of emails are landing in our inboxes on a daily basis. Now consider how often we are tracked when we click any of these messages, since 80% of these retailers include tracking pixels. These small, invisible images, as well as tracker links, are able to log information on our location, the time an email is opened, and our device type, all"

Eighty percent of major US retailers embed tracking technology such as invisible pixels and tracker links in marketing emails to record opens, clicks, time, location, and device type. Fifty major brick-and-mortar retailers sent about 42 billion marketing emails over a 28-day span that included Black Friday through Cyber Monday. A controlled inbox captured each message, linked metadata like timestamps and senders, and matched emails to public customer-volume and loyalty data. Typical weeks produced roughly 1.3 billion marketing emails per day, while the holiday surge raised daily volume to about 2.55 billion messages, intensifying inbox overload and consumer monitoring.

Read at ZDNET