Apple Privacy disrupts Legit Marketers & Could Lead to More Spam

What we know so far

Apple mail users will receive a message that gives them the option to protect their mail activity. Users that opt in can view emails without their open action tracked. There is also a ‘Hide my email’ feature that allows for a randomized address to be created that will forward mail to the Apple mail inbox and can easily be disconnected.

With a huge market share of email opens in 2020 (46% according to Litmus) and integrations of other mail apps into Apple Mail, the true impact of engagement data is unknown. The privacy feature is still in beta, so we will have to wait until we can test it thoroughly. More technical questions such as will opens be suppressed or inflated have yet to be addressed definitively, so stay tuned.

The new privacy initiative is not entirely a surprise. European nations have long emphasised the right to privacy and have worked tirelessly to enforce data protection and data transparency. In addition to this changing global landscape, as well as Facebook’s 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal, privacy protection is a suitable one upper opportunity for Apple. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerbeg and Apple CEO Tim Cook have feuded publicly on a variety of topics ranging from data privacy to subscription fees charged to content curators within the Apple ecosystem. Unfortunately, the spat between billionaires may cost legitimate marketers important data points and open the floodgates to unsolicited mail. As engagement data for email opens may soon be far less reliable, there is a good chance that less sophisticated senders could ignore opens entirely and blast away. Whether Apple will enhance mail filtering or actually create a usable postmaster page for good senders remains to be determined. Blocking html embedded pixels may deprive senders of monitoring email opens, but it is unclear how if at all this update prevents unwanted mail.