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Since Apple’s big news, we’ve sat back, listened, and observed. What is everyone saying about this sudden change? Are they worried? Should YOU be worried? Let’s find out…

What’s happened exactly?

First of all, if you are not too sure what we’re talking about, Apple has introduced ‘Mail Privacy Protection’ for their Mail app iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS Monterey devices, and watchOS 8. This change will affect email marketers/ marketers in general as they will no longer be able to track email opens or track the user’s IP to see other online activities (there goes any form of personalization).

Why are they doing this? 

Apple is a huge advocate when it comes to privacy.

“Privacy has been central to our work at Apple from the very beginning. Every year, we push ourselves to develop new technology to help users take more control of their data and make informed decisions about whom they share it with. This year’s updates include innovative features that give users deeper insights and more granular control than ever before.”

Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering

Is this an automatic setting?

No, the user will be given the choice to enable this mail privacy setting, and not everyone will, surely 😨? It also won’t come into effect until later this year.

Apple Mail Privacy Protection screen to avoid tracking

Image source: Ryan Jones on Twitter

Does the email have to be opened on the Apple Mail app?

Yes! If the recipient decides to open their emails via the Gmail app on their iOS 15 phone, tracking will be as normal. The email has to be opened on the Mail app itself for these privacy changes to take effect.

Do people use the Apple mail app?

Yes, it’s one of the top three email clients.

What are people saying?

Some say that open tracking has been and always will be a vanity metric that does not have any real value to your marketing strategy. Whereas, others worry that it will have a huge effect on list hygiene, email engagement being one main metric used to clear unengaged users from a mailing list. As advocates ourselves on list hygiene, this is a bit of a worry as engagement does play a huge part in sender reputation and deliverability. Other email marketers will also feel blind going into their marketing strategies, not being able to A/B test a subject line or content, maybe a little daunting for some.

We’d love to hear what you think.

 

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