Overview
Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) protects customers who use the Apple Mail app by preventing marketers from detecting when the customers open an email. MPP masks customers’ IP addresses so they can't be linked to other online activity or used to determine their location.
For users who opt-in to MPP, emails are preloaded using proxy servers. In this process, the server 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 how email campaigns work, email marketers usually add a square transparent image in their email messages. When a receiver opens this email, the image gets downloaded. This image captures different types of data, including when the email was opened, the platform it was opened on, location, and many more. This analytics helps marketers relate better with their customers, curate better content, and keep them engaged with relevant emails.
When a marketer sends an email to a customer who has opted into Apple's MPP policy, Apple stores and downloads the entire email on its server. In this process, the server stores all images, including the email-tracking pixel. Thus, email marketers might believe that the customer opened the email erroneously. If the customer chooses to open the email, the Mail app downloads the email from the Apple server, which blocks the receiver’s actions from the email service providers. This way, open rates, geolocation, and other data are affected. Thus, the tracking pixel cannot analyze customer details that are helpful and relevant for personalization.
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 will be inflated, resulting in incorrect metrics (such as inaccurate open rates).
- Marketers cannot distinguish the percentage of email opens between an actual user and a machine or a bot.
- Marketers cannot understand the actual Return on Investment (RoI) of marketing spend.
- Marketers will waste the marketing budget when trying to reach out to inactive customers.
- It can have an adverse effect on email campaigns centered around geolocation or time-based strategies.
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.