[LINK] GMail clobbers image tracking in ads

[Jim Birch]

Google have announced that they will begin cacheing the images in email
ads.  Advertisers load emails with uniquely-named images that are
downloaded at the time the mail is displayed.  This allows them to track
stuff like whether the email was viewed, at what time, by what client, at
what geolocation, and so on.  Many clients including GMail would ask your
permission before downloading images to limit this tracking.  Under the new
way of doing things the images are predownloaded by Google servers so the
advertiser loses information on if/when/where/etc the email is read (unless
you actually click on a link.)

This is something of a privacy bonus wrt random unknown
advertisers/spammers, plus, a small step towards world domination by
Google. Now, only Google know if you read the email.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/12/gmail-blows-up-e-mail-marketing-by-caching-all-images-on-google-servers/

- Jim