Introduction

Email tracking helps you understand how recipients interact with the emails you send through Mailjet. This includes measuring whether an email was opened and whether recipients clicked links included in the message.

Open tracking is usually performed through a small, invisible image known as a tracking pixel. Because loading this image may access information from the recipient’s device and generate information about their activity, its use may be subject to privacy and consent requirements.

In April 2026, the French data protection authority, Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL), and the Italian data protection authority, Garante per la protezione dei dati personali (Garante), published guidance specifically addressing tracking pixels in emails.

These publications do not introduce new statutory rules. They clarify how existing rules, primarily the ePrivacy Directive together with the GDPR and the corresponding French and Italian national laws, apply to email tracking.

What is an email tracking pixel?

A tracking pixel is a small, usually invisible image included in an email. The image is hosted on a remote server rather than being stored directly inside the message.

When the recipient opens the email and their email client loads external images, it sends a request to the server hosting the pixel. This request can allow the sender or its email service provider to register that the email was opened.

Depending on the implementation, the request may involve information such as:

• An identifier associated with the email or recipient.
• The date and time at which the pixel was loaded.
• The IP address used for the request.
• Information about the email client or device.
• Whether the message was opened more than once.

Open tracking can help senders measure performance, investigate deliverability, identify inactive contacts, and understand engagement. However, because the tracking mechanism is usually invisible, regulators emphasize transparency and recipient control.

What do the CNIL and Garante guidelines say?

What both authorities agree on

Both authorities consider that loading a tracking pixel may access information from a recipient’s device. The operation therefore falls within rules derived from the ePrivacy Directive, in addition to any GDPR requirements applicable to the subsequent processing of personal data.

Both authorities emphasize that:

• Prior consent is generally required unless a specific exemption applies.
• Recipients must be clearly informed that tracking pixels are being used.
• The purpose of the tracking must be clearly defined and explained.
• Only information necessary for the stated purpose should be collected.
• Consent must be free, specific, informed, unambiguous, and demonstrable.
• Recipients must be able to withdraw consent easily.
• The requirements applicable to the tracking pixel are separate from those applicable to sending the email.

Where France and Italy differ

The CNIL and Garante follow the same general consent principle, but they describe some exemptions differently.

When is consent generally required?

Whether consent is required depends primarily on the purpose for which open information is collected and used.

Consent may generally be required when individual open information is used for:

• Measuring and optimizing marketing campaign performance.
• Personalizing email content based on observed engagement.
• Adapting sending frequency or send time for individual recipients.
• Creating segments based on opens or non-opens.
• Triggering promotional Automation workflows.
• Building recipient profiles or engagement scores.
• Targeting recipients through other channels.
• Sending reminders or reactivation campaigns to non-openers.
• Investigating fraud or automated activity outside a narrowly defined security exception.
• Measuring individual deliverability outside the conditions of a recognized exemption.

These activities use open information to make decisions about an identifiable recipient rather than merely producing limited technical or anonymous statistics.

When may an exemption apply?

Both regulators recognize limited situations in which prior consent may not be required. An exemption should be interpreted narrowly, documented, and regularly reassessed.

Authentication security

Tracking may potentially qualify for an exemption when it is strictly necessary for a security measure related to user authentication.

For example, a pixel may be used exclusively to help verify that an email containing an authentication code or password-reset instruction was opened on a device known to belong to the intended recipient.

Deliverability and inactive-contact management under the CNIL recommendation

The CNIL describes a limited exemption for individual open tracking used exclusively for deliverability purposes.

To rely on this exemption, the sender must be able to demonstrate that the information is limited to what is strictly necessary to:

• Identify inactive recipients.
• Adjust sending frequency.
• Stop sending to inactive recipients.
• Clean the mailing list by reducing or stopping sends to inactive contacts.

The information must not be reused for marketing analytics, profiling, personalization, engagement scoring, or unrelated purposes.

Anonymous global statistics under the Garante guidelines

The Garante describes a possible exemption where pixels are used to calculate the overall percentage of recipients who opened a campaign, provided that the resulting information does not allow personalized measurement.

The Garante recommends measures such as:

• Using the same pixel for all recipients of the campaign.
• Not associating the event with an individual recipient.
• Anonymizing IP addresses and other technical information.
• Preventing the information from being used for recipient profiling.

Legally required, institutional, or essential service communications

The Garante also identifies possible exemptions for certain messages that the sender is legally required to provide or that protect the recipient.

Examples may include:

• Security-incident notifications.
• Warnings about current phishing or fraud threats.
• Legally required contractual notices.
• Important changes to scheduled services or events.
• Certain public-service or institutional communications.

Transactional, service, and B2B emails

The sending channel does not determine the email’s purpose

Sending an email through the Mailjet SMTP relay, Send API, Automation, or a transactional template does not by itself determine whether the email is transactional for privacy purposes.

For example, an abandoned-cart, reactivation, product recommendation, or price-drop message may remain promotional even when it is triggered automatically or sent through the transactional API.

Transactional emails are not automatically exempt

A genuinely transactional email is normally triggered by a recipient’s action and provides information required for a requested account, service, or transaction.

Examples may include:

• Order confirmations and invoices.
• Shipping and payment notifications.
• Password resets and account-security alerts.
• Appointment or reservation confirmations.
• Responses to customer-support requests.

Even when the email itself can be sent without marketing consent, using individual open information for personalization, profiling, or campaign optimization may still require tracking consent.

B2B communications

Certain B2B emails may, depending on the applicable law and circumstances, be sent without the same consent requirements that apply to consumer marketing. This does not automatically authorize individual open tracking.

The legal basis for sending the email and the requirements applicable to the tracking pixel should be assessed separately.

Collecting and demonstrating consent

When consent is required, it should generally be collected before the tracking pixel is used.

Consent should be:

• Informed: The recipient should understand that tracking pixels will be used and for which purposes.
• Specific: Separate purposes should be clearly identified.
• Freely given: Refusing tracking should not create an unnecessary disadvantage or prevent access to the requested service.
• Unambiguous: Consent should result from a clear positive action.
• Demonstrable: The sender must be able to prove when, how, and under which conditions it was obtained.

Collect consent when collecting the email address

Both authorities recommend informing recipients about tracking when their email address is collected, such as through a registration, checkout, or newsletter sign-up form.

The notice should explain:

• That tracking pixels may be included in emails.
• The purposes for which they will be used.
• The types of information that may be collected.
• Which parties may process the information.
• How consent can be withdrawn.

A short notice can be displayed directly on the form, with a link to more detailed information in your privacy or tracking policy.

Collect consent later

When tracking consent was not collected together with the email address, the CNIL indicates that the sender may request it later through an email linking to a consent interface.

The consent-request email should not itself contain a tracking pixel that requires consent. Clicking the link should also not automatically register consent, because email clients and security tools may preload links.

The linked page should require a clear positive action, such as selecting an option or clicking a confirmation button.

Contacts obtained from third parties

Mailjet prohibits the use of purchased, rented, scraped, or other third-party mailing lists.

For contacts collected through partners, affiliates, or co-registration processes, confirm that the collection method complies with Mailjet’s policies and that you can provide individualized evidence of the recipient’s permission where required.

A contract stating that another party collected consent may form part of your compliance documentation, but it may not be sufficient by itself. You should be able to produce evidence that each relevant recipient gave informed consent to the tracking purposes concerned.

Keep evidence of consent

Your consent records should allow you to demonstrate:

• Who consented or refused.
• The date and time of the choice.
• The email address covered by the choice.
• The purposes presented to the recipient.
• The wording and version of the consent notice.
• The source through which the choice was collected.
• Any subsequent withdrawal or change.

Withdrawing tracking consent

Recipients who consented to tracking must be able to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawing consent should be as easy as giving it.

Where required by the applicable regulatory framework, the withdrawal mechanism should allow recipients to choose between:

• Unsubscribing from future emails entirely.
• Continuing to receive emails while refusing the use of tracking pixels.

The CNIL recommends providing a personalized tracking-consent withdrawal link in the footer of each email. The Garante similarly recommends a clearly visible link or standardized icon leading to an area where the recipient can manage their choices.

Previously sent emails

Mailjet applies tracking changes when an email is generated. Switching tracking to Anonymous or Disabled therefore affects future sends only.

Emails sent before the change keep their original tracking configuration, so opens or clicks from those messages may still be recorded.

Your responsibilities and Mailjet’s role

In the usual Mailjet sending relationship, you decide why emails are sent and how the resulting tracking information is used. You therefore act as the data controller for those purposes.

Mailjet provides the technical email-sending and tracking functionality and processes the corresponding information on your instructions. 

As the sender, you are responsible for:

• Determining whether tracking is necessary.
• Identifying the purposes for which tracking information is used.
• Determining whether consent or an exemption applies.
• Informing recipients about the tracking.
• Collecting and recording any required consent.
• Applying refusals and withdrawals.
• Being able to demonstrate compliance.

Managing tracking in Mailjet

You can manage open and click tracking from your Mailjet account settings.

1. Log in to your Mailjet account.
2. Go to Account → Tracking .
3. Under Email tracking settings, select the options you want to apply. 
   

Using Anonymous tracking

The Anonymous option allows you to continue measuring overall email engagement while reducing the amount of recipient-level information collected.

It is a useful choice when you want to monitor general open and click activity but do not need to identify which individual contacts interacted with a specific email. This can help you maintain visibility into campaign performance while adopting a more privacy-conscious approach to engagement tracking.

Anonymous tracking can therefore form an important part of your privacy and compliance strategy, particularly when aggregated performance insights are sufficient for your needs.

However, no single technical setting can address every legal requirement. Whether consent is required may still depend on factors such as the purpose of the tracking, the applicable jurisdiction, how the information is processed, and whether the resulting data meets the relevant legal standard for anonymization.

Recipient-level consent management

The Mailjet settings described in this article apply at account level. They do not create or manage a separate tracking-consent status for each recipient.

Through these settings, you cannot automatically:

• Enable tracking only for contacts who consented.
• Disable tracking only for contacts who refused or withdrew consent.
• Apply a different setting to each recipient within the same account.
• Maintain proof of each recipient’s consent.

What happens when tracking is anonymized or disabled?

Changing your tracking settings may affect the engagement information available in Mailjet and any features that rely on recipient-level activity.

Before changing your tracking settings, review any active segments, Automation workflows, reports, exports, or operational processes that depend on open or click data.

How Anonymous tracking works

When Anonymous tracking is enabled, Mailjet continues to record overall campaign activity while limiting the recipient-level information displayed for anonymous opens and clicks.

In the Activity tab:

• Delivered always shows the contacts who received the email.
• Opened does not show contacts whose opens were recorded anonymously.
• Clicked does not show contacts whose clicks were recorded anonymously.
• Unsubscribed always shows the contacts who unsubscribed.
• Spam always shows the contacts who marked the email as spam.

For reporting purposes, Mailjet may associate certain identifiable actions with an open event. Therefore:

• If an identifiable click, unsubscribe, or spam event is recorded, the contact may also appear under Opened, even when open tracking is Anonymous.
• If open tracking is Anonymous but click tracking is Enabled, a contact who clicks a link appears under both Clicked and Opened. This is because clicking a link confirms that the recipient interacted with the opened email.

Recommended actions

Review your email tracking practices with your legal, privacy, deliverability, marketing, and engineering teams.

Frequently asked questions

Learn more

• CNIL: Tracking pixels in emails 
• CNIL recommendation on tracking pixels in emails – English version 
• Garante guidelines on tracking pixels in email communications 
• Tracking pixels, EU regulators, and you: a calm person’s guide to what just happened