Michelle Dassen
Privacy and email marketing have been moving closer together for years. GDPR changed how we handle consent for sending emails. Now two European data protection authorities are taking the next step: the tracking pixel that records whether someone opens your email now requires consent too.
We could treat this as a compliance problem to get off the table as quickly as possible. We're not doing that. We're building a solution that's done right, works across Europe, and genuinely helps you as a customer handle email tracking in a correct and sustainable way.
In this article, we explain where we stand, what's coming, and what you can already do today.
We could treat this as a compliance problem to get off the table as quickly as possible. We're not doing that. We're building a solution that's done right, works across Europe, and genuinely helps you as a customer handle email tracking in a correct and sustainable way.
In this article, we explain where we stand, what's coming, and what you can already do today.
What you can already do in Flexmail
You can already switch off click tracking completely in your account settings. When click tracking is disabled, no individual click data is collected or processed. Statistics such as delivered messages, bounces and unsubscribes remain available as usual.Switching off open tracking at account level is on its way. It's part of the broader consent framework we're rolling out this autumn.
What's coming: the open tracking consent framework
We're building a complete system to manage open tracking consent properly. Not a band-aid, but a structural change to how Flexmail handles tracking. The framework works at account level and has a direct impact on your sends, forms, reporting and profile page.What it includes:
For each contact, we record whether they have given consent for open tracking. Contacts without consent automatically receive a pixel-free version of your email. Click tracking stays active for all contacts, regardless of their open tracking status.
Your opt-in forms automatically get an extra checkbox for open tracking consent. It's optional and not pre-ticked. Anyone who signs up for your newsletter without ticking the box still receives your emails, just without a tracking pixel.
For existing contacts without tracking consent, you can send an automatic consent email from Flexmail. It politely asks whether they'd like to allow open tracking.
Your profile page gets three separate options: receive emails with open tracking, receive emails without open tracking, or unsubscribe. Declining tracking has no effect on receiving emails.
Your reporting adapts. You see how many contacts are tracked and how many aren't, and the open rate is calculated over the group that has given consent. That way you always know exactly which group your numbers refer to. Figures from before and after activation can't simply be compared, though. You can read more about that in our reporting guide.
The framework also affects other Flexmail features, such as import, segmentation, automation and A/B testing.
You make the choice.
The consent framework is something you activate as a customer, not something we impose. Do you only send to contacts outside France and Italy, and see no reason to switch the framework on yet? Then nothing changes in how you use Flexmail. Do you send to markets where the regulation already applies, or do you want to be prepared for what's coming in other countries? Then switch the framework on and the logic runs automatically in the background.
We're building this for all of Europe. If other countries introduce the same rules, you won't need to reconfigure anything.
How to prepare now
You don't have to wait for the new features to start taking steps.- Map your list. If you send to contacts in France or Italy, it's useful to identify that group. Search your contact database by country field if you keep one, or filter on email domains of local providers: @orange.fr, @laposte.net and @sfr.fr for France; @libero.it, @virgilio.it, @tim.it and @tiscali.it for Italy. Export that group. That's your starting point for a consent campaign as soon as the features are available.
- Review your segments and automations. Which segments are built on open behaviour? Which automations are triggered because someone opened an email, or didn't? Make a list of those flows and think about which alternative you'll use once open data is no longer there: click behaviour, time-based logic, purchase history, or stated interests. This work is worthwhile regardless of the legislation.
- Switch to clicks as your primary metric. Start reporting on click rate, conversions and unsubscribes as your key measures now. It helps your team get used to a way of measuring that still works when opens disappear, and which, frankly, was always more reliable.
- Enrich your contact data. Custom fields, interest categories, purchase history: these are the signals that keep your segmentation strong when open behaviour is no longer available. If your contacts still have little extra data, now is the time to improve that, through your forms, your preference page, or your CRM integration.
Shifting to clicks is better anyway
An open tells you that an email client loaded an image. A click tells you that a person found something interesting enough to go further. Those two are not the same.Apple Mail Privacy Protection and Gmail's AI summaries have structurally skewed open rates in recent years. The open rate you see today is a mix of real opens, automatically preloaded images, and AI reading your email before your reader does. Clicks don't have that problem.
Customers who make the move to click-based reporting and segmentation now are building something more durable, whatever new regulation comes next.
Other countries will follow
The legal basis on which the CNIL and the Garante acted, the ePrivacy Directive, applies in every EU member state. Every national data protection authority has the same text in front of it. We believe other countries will eventually take the same step.That's exactly why we're building this framework for all of Europe. If you activate the consent framework now, you're ready for what's coming, without having to reconfigure anything.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult your own DPO or legal adviser for an assessment specific to your situation.
