Overview
Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) protects Apple Mail app users by preventing marketers from detecting when they open emails. MPP masks their IP addresses, preventing links to other online activity or location tracking.
For users who opt in to MPP, Apple preloads email using proxy servers. This process stores all the images, including the email tracking pixel, hindering the ability to use tracking pixels for metrics such as open tracking. As a marketer, you can expect MPP to result in issues regarding email engagement metrics.
How Is MPP Connected with Email Analytics?
To measure email campaign performance, email marketers usually add a square transparent image in their email messages. When a recipient opens this email, this image is downloaded. This image captures different types of data, including when the email was opened, the platform it was opened on, location. This data helps marketers relate better with their users, curate better content, and keep them engaged with relevant emails.
When you send an email to an Apple Mail user who has enabled MPP, Apple automatically downloads the entire email, including its images, to its proxy servers. This can make marketers falsely believe the user opened the email. If the user then chooses to open the email, the Mail app loads it from Apple's server, which prevents email service providers from tracking the user's actual interaction. This affects metrics like open rates, geolocation, and other valuable personalization data.
How Does MPP Affect Email Analytics?
The following are the effects of MPP on email analytics:
- Because Apple preloads the tracking pixels on its proxy servers, the open rates become inflated, resulting in incorrect metrics (such as inaccurate open rates).
- Marketers cannot differentiate between actual user opens and machine or bot opens.
- Understanding the true Return on Investment (ROI) for marketing spend becomes difficult.
- Marketing budgets may be wasted when trying to engage inactive users.
- Geolocation or time-based email campaigns may be negatively affected.
Who Will Be Affected by MPP?
MPP affects any recipient using the native Apple Mail app on:
- iOS 15
- iPadOS 15
- macOS Monterey
- watchOS 8
MPP applies to all users who have connected their email account to the Apple Mail app and have opted into the security feature, regardless of email service (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, AOL, and so on). This impact is not constrained to subscribers who receive email at Apple/iCloud/me.com email addresses.
What is the Workaround for the MPP of Apple?
The engagement platform of MoEngage identifies machine opens and differentiates them from authentic user-triggered opens by analyzing the user agent from which a particular open was triggered. MoEngage has introduced metrics such as Adjusted Opens, Adjusted Open Rates, and Adjusted Click to Open Rates, which measure the opens from authentic unique users. For more information on these metrics, refer to Configure Email Channel.