Embracing Privacy-First Email Marketing
Email privacy has been moving in one direction for years: more protection for recipients and less passive tracking for senders. Regulations, browser changes, and platform decisions have steadily reshaped how data can be collected. Email marketing is not an exception — and that’s not a bad thing.
Privacy-first email marketing isn’t a temporary phase or a trend to wait out. It’s the environment we operate in today.
What changed with Mail Privacy Protection
Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) was introduced by Apple in September 2021 as part of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey. Its purpose is straightforward: reduce invisible tracking in email and give recipients more control over their privacy.
Traditionally, email opens are tracked using a small, invisible image embedded in the email. When a recipient opens a message and their email client downloads images, that image is requested from the sender’s server — and that request is recorded as an open.
Mail Privacy Protection changes this behavior. Instead of loading images directly from the recipient’s device at the moment they open the email, Apple may preload those images in advance through its own servers. As a result, the signal that registers an “open” is no longer tied to a clear moment of human interaction.
In practice, this means:
• Opens can be registered even if the email wasn’t actively read
• Location, device, and timing data become unreliable
• Open rates are inflated and less precise
What Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) does not do is block emails, links, or content. Clicks, conversions, and on-site behavior remain real, intentional signals.
Today, roughly half of all email opens are affected by MPP, depending on audience and email client mix. This makes open rates noisier — but not meaningless.
How Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) affects open rates
Mail Privacy Protection doesn’t generate fake opens for everyone. It only affects emails that Apple Mail actually processes. Many recipients — including Apple users — still generate no open signal at all.
The practical outcome is:
• Absolute open rates are unreliable
• Inflation varies across audiences and campaigns
• Opens no longer reflect actual reading behavior
In many ways, this simply highlights something that was already true: an open never reliably meant intent — an open didn’t necessarily mean someone was interested.
Comparing campaigns still works — with care
When you send to the same audience over time, the distortion caused by MPP is often similar from one send to the next. That means open rates can still be useful for relative comparison, even if the absolute numbers aren’t exact.
Industry benchmarks can still provide helpful context, but open rates are most useful when comparing your own campaigns over time. Looking at trends within the same audience gives far more reliable insight than focusing on absolute numbers.
This is even more true for A/B testing subject lines within the same send. In that scenario:
• The audience is the same
• Timing is the same
• Client mix is the same
• MPP distortion is applied equally
That makes the comparison directionally valid. You can confidently see which subject line performs better — just without treating the numbers as precise measurements of readership.
What to measure instead
Privacy-first email marketing shifts focus from passive signals to actions people choose to take:
- Clicks in the email, and what happens next on your site
Not just whether someone clicked, but how they interact after arriving. - Meaningful actions that support your goals
For example signing up, downloading content, starting a trial, or completing a purchase — not just surface-level activity. - Engagement over time, not single sends
Look at patterns across multiple campaigns rather than judging success from one email alone. - What people explicitly tell you about their interests
Such as selected topics, frequency choices, form inputs, or preference-center selections.
If email doesn’t drive people somewhere — to your site, content, or product — it doesn’t drive the business.
Embracing the change
Embrace the challenge. Change is the only constant.
Email marketing adapts and remains relevant in an evolving environment.
Author: Henrik Boye – Product Manager @ Apsis
