i’m getting a lot of emails from my bank and other services that make me aware that they use tracking pixels in emails. apparently they are obliged by the privacy regulator that is enforcing a recent EU directive. i didn’t even know that i was sending ip and client info simply by reading my emails in thunderbird or k9 on my mobile. is there a way to deactivate these? and is there a risk that by doing so the bank thinks the email is compromised or non existant. its incredibile to see how sophisticated data hoovering technology has become. the internet has become a real mess …
There are add-ons (and i think there even is a setting option noe) to not load html but display the message in Plain Text: Allow HTML Temp.
Highly recommend to just show(and use) plain text.
Yes, plain text is the way to go. Advertising, special offer, promotion emails, reminders from brands you have subscribed to etc filter themselves out in to two categories when you see only text: those who bother to use words to tell you something (and might be worth reading), or brands whose emails contain virtually nothing (apart from a handy unsubscribe link) once the pretty pictures have been expunged.
Indeed, there is a built-in setting to show messages as ‘original html’ or ‘simplified html’ or ‘plain text’.
But even if you choose ‘original html’, external elements are not downloaded, unless you positively answer the warning (above the message) to download them. Any images you might still see are embedded in the message itself, not externally downloaded.