Gmail Changes - Default to Show External Content
Dec 13, 2013 | 9:38 am
#1
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Gmail Changes - Default to Show External Content
Google recently announced it was switching Gmail to automatically display external images instead of making the user click a button to do so. This means that email marketers will be able to see when you open an email - they frequently put tracking images in emails. Google is also moving to having its servers get these images for you, so that Google can scan them for known malware and hide your IP from the email marketers.
Be sure to go back into your Gmail settings today and set the External Content setting to Ask before displaying external content if this is important to you.
http://arstechnica.com/security/2013...ght-and-today/
Be sure to go back into your Gmail settings today and set the External Content setting to Ask before displaying external content if this is important to you.
http://arstechnica.com/security/2013...ght-and-today/
Dec 13, 2013 | 9:51 am
#3
Join Date: Aug 2006
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In any case, great info and thanks for sharing!
Last edited by boberonicus; Dec 13, 2013 at 10:05 am
Dec 13, 2013 | 9:59 am
#4
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- Login to Gmail
- Click on the little "wheel" on the top right corner.
- Select "Settings" (about halfway down the list)
- Three lines down, look for "external content"
- Click the radio button for "Ask before displaying external content"
Dec 13, 2013 | 10:03 am
#5
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And yes, images frequently contain user-specific urls. This doesn't change the tracking; it just hides your IP. People sending these won't see your IP when they look who downloaded it. They'll see that (for example) gfunkdave downloaded the image from a Google server.
Dec 13, 2013 | 11:17 am
#6
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Three lines down after selecting "Settings" is "Maximum Page Size". Below that is "Images" in which we have the choice to "Ask before displaying images". Is that what you mean?
Last edited by Analise; Dec 13, 2013 at 11:40 am
Dec 13, 2013 | 11:25 am
#7
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- Login to Gmail
- Click on the little "wheel" on the top right corner.
- Select "Settings" (about halfway down the list)
- Three lines down, look for "external content"
- Click the radio button for "Ask before displaying external content"
Dec 13, 2013 | 2:13 pm
#9
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No. What Google is actually doing is cacheing those images on it's servers when the mail comes in. When you view the message you actually see what's on their server.
This only lets the sender know the message was received by Google, not that it was actually looked at.
This only lets the sender know the message was received by Google, not that it was actually looked at.
Dec 13, 2013 | 2:58 pm
#10
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No. What Google is actually doing is cacheing those images on it's servers when the mail comes in. When you view the message you actually see what's on their server.
This only lets the sender know the message was received by Google, not that it was actually looked at.
This only lets the sender know the message was received by Google, not that it was actually looked at.
Dec 13, 2013 | 4:26 pm
#11
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The screen shot was very helpful. I must have a different version from yours but the same as lhrsfo. Where you highlighted "External content", mine says "Images". To the right, we have a choice of:
Always display external images
Ask before displaying external images
I chose the bottom one as it seemed close enough to your recommendation.
Always display external images
Ask before displaying external images
I chose the bottom one as it seemed close enough to your recommendation.
Dec 13, 2013 | 5:06 pm
#12
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The screen shot was very helpful. I must have a different version from yours but the same as lhrsfo. Where you highlighted "External content", mine says "Images". To the right, we have a choice of:
Always display external images
Ask before displaying external images
I chose the bottom one as it seemed close enough to your recommendation.
Always display external images
Ask before displaying external images
I chose the bottom one as it seemed close enough to your recommendation.
Dec 13, 2013 | 6:34 pm
#14
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No. What Google is actually doing is cacheing those images on it's servers when the mail comes in. When you view the message you actually see what's on their server.
This only lets the sender know the message was received by Google, not that it was actually looked at.
This only lets the sender know the message was received by Google, not that it was actually looked at.
It's still causing pain for marketing/tracking images, because although they can tell you opened the email, they are not seeing many of the details that are normally visible (user agent/device time, IP address, etc).
There's a number of sites tracking the impact of these changes on email - such as http://blog.wordtothewise.com/2013/1...gmail-caching/
Dec 13, 2013 | 6:48 pm
#15
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