- Hey guys, I'm Aaron and I'll be covering some juicy
and maybe not always so juicy,
but very necessary topics to protect your online privacy.
So you came here
to learn about blocking email trackers, right?
Well, I'm with you.
You might know that opening emails,
may give away when and where you open them.
Email trackers are widespread right now,
and it might be foolish to allow marketing companies,
and untrustworthy businesses to track your actions.
Today, I will teach you how to block email trackers,
once and for all.
(making trumpet sounds)
But before we start, consider subscribing
and giving a like to this video when you finish it.
(bright music)
And so, that's how cookies crumble.
Email tracking is widespread.
And what's worse, a completely legal way
for your colleagues, marketers, scammers,
and even less nice folk to learn your whereabouts
and habits, which emails you delete
without reading and which you reread repeatedly.
This information may not be worth much to you,
but it could be a goldmine for those trying
to force their product on you or worse,
scam you out of your money.
Either way, your privacy is under risk.
So, first of all,
I want to explain how email tracking works.
It will be important later,
when I explain how to block email tracking,
so you completely understand the whole process.
Email tracking is no joke.
It starts with the sender of the email,
adding a tiny, no, I said tiny, even tinier,
yeah, that's about right.
So as I said,
adding a tiny single pixel image to their email.
Once you open this email, your browser sends a request
to the sender server asking to load the image.
This process shares your time, location,
and device data, with the server,
and at the same time, the sender of the email.
And this process will repeat each time you open the email,
extending the tracking details.
It's so simple, that you won't even guess
that something like that could work.
Fortunately, as it's so simple,
you can stop email tracking quite easily as well.
All you have to do, is block auto loading of images
in emails.
While it will get rid of external images,
everything loaded onto the servers of your email client
will remain,
so all attached data is safe.
If you're using Gmail, you need to click
on the gear icon and head to settings.
Under the general tab,
you will see the images section, take the bubble saying,
"Ask before displaying external images,"
and this will stop email trackers.
Then scroll to the bottom and press save settings.
Apple mail users,
start by selecting preferences in the mail tab.
Once the window opens,
head to the viewing tab and uncheck,
"Load remote content in messages" box,
you're done.
Now, mobile users,
starting with Android users.
It's practically the same as on PC
because we're talking about Gmail.
Email tracking can be blocked with the same steps.
First, choose which account you want to change
the settings for.
After choosing an account,
scroll down (indistinct) the images tab and tap it.
Just like on PC,
look for the "Ask before displaying external images" bubble,
and tap it, finished.
iOS users, go straight to settings
and look for the mail section.
Inside, under the messages tab,
disable the "Load remote images" setting,
and you're all done.
Now, this is one way to block email trackers.
You could also use browser extensions
like ad blockers and script blocker extensions.
They can be configured to automatically block all attempts
to load external content,
be it images, links, or advertisement windows
on the pages of your choice.
Obviously, blocking email trackers at the same time.
Personally, I'd recommend uBlock Origin,
a fast and reliable ad blocker.
So, if you want to make sure no email trackers
will spy on you,
a few quick changes in the settings will do that,
or you can use an external software to do the same thing.
If this video helped you, make sure to leave a like
and consider subscribing to our channel,
we have a lot of cybersecurity info
you might be interested in.
Hope to see you again, in another video.
(upbeat music)