Spammers Track Usage, Too

Most of the HTML newsletters you receive will include images, which are downloaded from a remote server when you open the email to track whether you actually do open (and possibly even read) the message.

Spammers, never shy to exploit all possibilities, are using tracking images, too. Some do indeed seem to be interested whether an email address works, and by downloading the tracking image you confirm that (maybe resulting in even more spam).

So how can you avoid being tracked?

• If you can tell something is spam by the subject, the sender or the recipient, don't open it at all.
• Additionally, you can configure your email client to avoid this kind of privacy infringement.