[LINK] GMail clobbers image tracking in ads

[Glen Turner]

I don't know what the fuss is about. Google is doing just enough, but could certainly do a lot more.

For example, it could pre-fetch all images referred to by incoming mail and then cache those. Then spammers would never know if the mail was read. Better still, it could rewrite image URLs to the Google cache, thus not giving away any information if the mail was forwarded or accessed via IMAPS.

The blogs by the spammers are interesting. They read like they believe they are conducting a legitimate business and seem outraged by any moves to restrict their actions.

-glen