On Mar 5, 2012, at 4:20 PM, Colin Law wrote: > On 5 March 2012 21:16, Walter Lee Davis <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> On Mar 5, 2012, at 3:54 PM, Marcelo G. Silva wrote: >> >>> the problem is that I need to create this type of service, like the >>> MailChimp. >> >> Then you're going to have to solve the same problems they have. >> >> The usual way to figure out if someone has opened a mail message is to add a >> "beacon" image to it. You add a 1x1px image in the body of the e-mail >> message linked from your server, and use the path to that image to convey a >> code. <img src="http://example.com/tracker/asdfs78223/pixel.gif"; /> Another >> spin on this is to add the token to each regular image in your layout. You >> make up these tokens when you send out the message, so you know that >> asdfs78223 == [email protected]. >> >> Back in Rails, you create a route for this image, and serve the image but >> also record the request in your database. > > And in practice of course it doesn't work very well as a lot of people > have their mailer set to not automatically show images. In fact I > think everyone who realises that they /can/ set their mailer up like > that does, for precisely the reason that we don't want people snooping > on us. > > Colin
That goes without saying for the class of users who know where the preferences are and change the from the defaults. I'm certainly in that camp myself. But the vast majority of people who don't ever change these defaults do get tracked this way, despite my efforts to educate them. Walter -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en.
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