Google have announced that they will begin cacheing the images in email ads. Advertisers load emails with uniquely-named images that are downloaded at the time the mail is displayed. This allows them to track stuff like whether the email was viewed, at what time, by what client, at what geolocation, and so on. Many clients including GMail would ask your permission before downloading images to limit this tracking. Under the new way of doing things the images are predownloaded by Google servers so the advertiser loses information on if/when/where/etc the email is read (unless you actually click on a link.)
This is something of a privacy bonus wrt random unknown advertisers/spammers, plus, a small step towards world domination by Google. Now, only Google know if you read the email. http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/12/gmail-blows-up-e-mail-marketing-by-caching-all-images-on-google-servers/ - Jim _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
