32 percent of Americans are unaware of email tracking

A new survey from email service OnMail reveals that 93 percent of Americans think it's important that companies don't track their email, however, 32 percent don't know that leading email providers do it for advertising purposes.

Interestingly this view is remarkably consistent across age groups with 93 percent or more across all groups believing it's important that businesses don’t track the types of email you open.

The study of almost 1,100 adults shows that more than half (52 percent) of Americans define email privacy as the absence of personal tracking/targeting, while 34 percent define it as having no advertisers in their inboxes.

A Princeton study in 2018 found that in a test of over 12,000 emails from 900 senders offering mailing list subscriptions, as many as 70 percent contained trackers.

More than a third (38 percent) say an ad-free experience is the most important feature they look for in a new email service, while 50 percent name a one-tap unsubscribe from junk -- a solution needed to stem the problem of over-aggressive marketers and advertisers flooding your inbox. Other popular features are search that works within email (37 percent) and a single inbox for multiple accounts (33 percent).

Marketers often use hidden 'spy pixels' to know when an email has been opened. OnMail's service automatically blocks these to prevent the account being monitored.

You can read more about the results and OnMail's solution on the company's blog.

Photo Credit: Balefire/Shutterstock