How Apple's New Email Privacy Is Going To Affect Your Email List.
LET'S TALK PRIVACY.
Privacy. It’s been on my mind.
Has it been on yours?
Even if it’s not top of mind for you I bet you’ve been hearing about it and thinking about it without even realizing it, and I’ve got TWO words for you.
AMAZON.
APPLE.
Why these two words?
Amazon: head over to last week’s blog post and read the Top 3 Things You Need to Know about Amazon Sidewalk.
Apple: People who use Apple Mail are rejoicing in the added privacy coming in the next major operating system releases for all Apple products. Why? No longer can the bad guys discover if you opened their email. On the flip side, businesses with an email list are freaking out as their open rates will become unreliable with this same privacy feature.
How can this new privacy feature be good and bad at the same time?
Keep reading for answers.
2020 THE SUMMER OF THE TIKTOK PANIC
Do you remember last summer when everyone was freaking out about TikTok? I know it was a long time ago, and with COVID time had little meaning, but about a year ago there was a lot of concern about the data TikTok was snagging from your devices without your knowledge. Then President Trump said he would shut it down in the US if they didn’t fix it. Does that sound familiar?
What caused last year’s panic? The iOS 14 beta testers received notifications that TikTok was accessing their Clipboard. Why were they getting that notice? Because iOS 14 included additional features to make users aware how apps were using their data so they could control their privacy better.
20201 THE SUMMER OF EMAIL PRIVACY?
This summer iOS 15 is the new kid in town – along with iPadOS15 and macOS Monterey, and last week Apple announced the benefits consumers can expect.
The additional feature that will affect your open rates is MAIL PRIVACY PROTECTION.
What does Mail Privacy Protection do?
“When enabled, Mail Privacy Protection hides your IP address and loads all remote content privately in the background, routing it through multiple proxy services and randomly assigning an IP address.” (https://www.macrumors.com/2021/06/10/ios-15-mail-privacy-protection-tracking-pixels/)
Could you give that to me in English?
Sure. This renders the tracking pixel and other pictures included in emails that track email opens useless in Apple Mail when this feature is on.
Bad guys and email marketing services alike use this same tactic to learn if you’re opening their emails.
The bad guys like it because then they know they’ve got a valid email address, and they’ll start sending you more spam and phishing emails.
Businesses with an email list use the information to learn the content that interests you, test emails against each other, and decide if they should remove you from their email list to save money (i.e. if you’re not reading, why should I send it to you?).
WHAT INFO WILL I LOSE WHEN THIS GOES LIVE?
1. Accurate open rates. Your open rates could skyrocket because Apple is anonymously downloading everything.
2. Who’s opening your emails.
3. The number of times your emails are opened.
4. If your email was forwarded.
5. Detailed Regional info. You’ll lose access to the reader’s IP Address, which provides those details.
Is this new?
Sort of. Apple Mail and most other email apps have a feature that when turned on blocks remote content such as the tracking pixel and online pics, which prevents users from seeing any pics in their email, so it’s not pretty. Many corporate entities enable this by default for Outlook. But outside of forced settings from your employers users do have to take extra steps to turn it on. The difference here is Apple will ask users if they want to turn on Mail Privacy Protection when they upgrade to the newest Apple operating system.
In conclusion…
I’ve always maintained the position that it’s ridiculous to delete people from your email list because they didn’t open your email. If I’m on your email list you’ll almost never see me on your open list, but that doesn’t mean I’m not reading. I have remote content blocked.
It seems to me that getting engagement on your emails like replies, tracking clicks, and tracking where people are coming from and using different landing pages for analytics will become even more important in the future.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Have you had remote content disabled for a while?
Are you worried about your email list?
Drop a comment below.
If you’re interested in increasing your email delivery rates and staying out of spam, especially in the wonky world that’s coming, then we should chat. You’ll want to know that you’ve done everything correctly on the tech side to get your emails delivered.
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