[andyjohnson0]

> External images are regularly abused to track if the email has been viewed, which I consider creepy.

My understanding was that external images are automatically fetched and cached on their servers by Google, so they can't be reliably used to track message views [1]. Has this changed?

[1] https://gmail.googleblog.com/2013/12/images-now-showing.html

[scaasic]

AFAIK tracking images are usually sent via a recipient-unique URL, which allows services like Mailchimp to provide open stats for individuals. Since the URLs are unique, the host servers will get hit at least once per recipient that opens the email, as Google downloads and caches the image.

[ConfucianNardin]

That depends on how the fetching and caching is implemented. If it's done when you open your email, the tracking would still work. If the trigger is unrelated to anything correlating with your opening of the email it wouldn't.

It will still prevent the sender from setting cookies for you, or learning your IP and user agent.

[askvictor]

They are proxied by Google's servers, but not (necessarily) cached.

[hippich]

I am in the process of learning everything-marketing and sending my own emails from my own server using my own hosted software.

I can confirm that every time you open email, open is get tracked. (what is not get tracked is your IP/OS/etc)

So in fact Gmail made online marketers job easier.