Turn Off Automatic Image Loading in Email If Privacy Matters

When an email loads images automatically, it does more than show you a logo or a photo. Hidden tracking pixels — tiny invisible images — tell the sender exactly when you opened the email, on what device, and sometimes your location. Marketers, spammers, and even individuals use this to monitor whether you've read their messages.

Most email clients let you disable automatic image loading. You can still load images manually for emails you trust. It is a small tradeoff in convenience for a significant gain in privacy — especially if you want to read emails on your own terms without anyone knowing when or if you did.