When the use of email caught on back in the early 90s, the email messages were plain text only. You could not attach anything or include anything with it. The email messages are now much more advanced and can contain HTML elements along with images, videos and more. Because of the complex nature of the email contents, now some people include a tracking image inside the email messages that looks harmless but is used to track whether the recipient has opened the email message.
Sometimes this tracking image with a tracking link appears in form of author’s image and sometimes a very tiny 1 pixel by 1 pixel image is used to hide it. In any case, as soon as you open the email, the tracking link is accessed and it registers both your IP address and that you have opened the email message. This method is usually used by marketers and spammers.
In email client software like Mozilla Thunderbird, there is a setting to disable remote links which effectively blocks such trackers. But if you are accessing webmail in your Chrome web browser, then you may want to use an extension called Email Privacy Protector. This extension blocks the embedded tracking links inside email messages and protects your email privacy.
This extension works out of the box and displays its status inside the email message. When you open an email message, it will scan the message body for any tracking elements and display the tracking status. If it finds a tracking element such as a remote link or image then it shows “This sender is tracking your email”. Furthermore, it displays that the tracking has been blocked.
After you have installed this Email Privacy Protector extension, no one will ever be able to know when you opened your email messages or have any information from you when you click any of the links inside the message body. This extension can block all the email tracking attempts used to detect when you open and read emails effectively.
You can get Email Privacy Protector extension for Google Chrome from https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/email-privacy-protector-i/ocodabmcnjfjeioonacpommjjlmhbccg?hl=en.