It is no secret that online activities are tracked. One of the ways to do this is through unnecessary emails that usually arrive in our mailbox quite frequently. These emails use a number of secret methods to access your information and how you interact with them. The latest versions of iOS 15 and macOS 12 aim to accept those unsolicited emails with a feature called “Email Privacy Protection.” If you want to use this feature and keep your web activity private, here’s how to enable Email Privacy Protection in macOS Monterey.
Prevent emails from tracking you on Mac with macOS 12 Monterey
First, let’s get a little understanding of how advertisers track you through emails. For the most part, advertisers primarily use remote images that are uploaded when opening an email for tracking purposes. But they also use tracking pixels to collect information about the user. These tiny pixels are often hidden in plain white text and are barely visible to the human eye. When the mail is opened, the code within the pixels collects the required information (such as the type of email opened, the time the email was checked, how often the email was searched, etc.) and sends it to those advertisers. This is how you create a personalized profile of the user’s online activity on websites.
How does email privacy protection work?
Apple’s new privacy feature ensures that your personal information is not accessed. To do this, the Email Privacy Protection feature hides your IP address from these trackers and uploads all remote content privately. In this way, invisible trackers cannot access your information. Another good part is that when this function is enabled, it loads the content in the background even when you have not opened the mail. This also makes it difficult for trackers to know your activity. Apple also employs multiple proxy servers and assigns a random IP address to make things more secure.
As a result, email senders can only see an IP address that corresponds to the region where you are located and the actual data is never collected. Also, the data is not specific and random and therefore makes it difficult for advertisers to create your profile online.
Enable email privacy protection on Mac
The Mail Privacy Protection feature is pretty simple to activate once you’ve updated your Mac devices to the latest version of macOS Monterey. Here’s how to do it:
- Open the Apple Mail application on your Mac and then click on the Mailmenu in the upper left corner of the screen.
- Now choose Preferences from the menu.
- Next, make sure the Privacy tab is selected.
- Finally, check the box next to Mail Privacy Protection to enable it.
From here on, Mail Privacy Protection will hide your IP address on your Mac and upload all remote content privately in the background. Therefore, trackers will not be able to track your email activity.
Disable email privacy protection on Mac
If you no longer want to use this feature on your Mac,
- Go to Mail preferences through the Mail app .
- Select the privacy option.
- Just uncheck the Mail Privacy Protection box.
Once disabled, you will see two new options to choose from. These options can help you decide the type of data you want to hide. Following the steps mentioned above, you will find the options “Hide IP address” and “Block all remote content”. You can also choose or disable both.
Email privacy protection to protect your information
That was all from us on how you can use the new Email Privacy Protection feature on your Apple device and prevent data trackers from collecting your information. Since the privacy of our data is of the utmost importance, features like these from Apple can really help. Besides, you can also use Mail Privacy Protection on iPhone. Additionally, Apple has also introduced features like Hide My Email and App Tracking Transparency in iOS 15. All of these features are intended to protect your personal information from being tracked.
What do you think of this new privacy feature in macOS? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.
For more such interesting article like this, app/softwares, games, Gadget Reviews, comparisons, troubleshooting guides, listicles, and tips & tricks related to Windows, Android, iOS, and macOS, follow us on Google News, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest.