Re:Spy pixels in emails 'have become endemic'
by petercooper on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @05:20AM
(#26164808)
Relying on email opens is really not a good measure of engagement.
It's not, but it's what we have. It's a bit like how counting podcast listeners based off of downloads is a terrible system too but it's all they have to go on (I'm subbed to hundreds and don't listen to 99% of episodes).
It's a bit more complicated than that. There are many reasons why a pixel may not fire but the email is still read, and there are many ways pixels can record false positives.
Relying on email opens is really not a good measure of engagement.
Sadly, inbox placement is almost impossible to measure without email open tracking as feedback loops from gmail/hotmail/etc are just not good enough.