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Comment by midasuni | Hacker News Reader

I’m confused. When I open a mail in iOS, I get a banner saying “this message contains unloaded images”

I thought the only ones loaded were ones embedded as an attachment. Is that not the case?

You're not wrong. Not loading images will block tracking pixels completely. Apple is just adding a way to send less PII while still loading images.

I rarely want images on my mails. Won’t this method show that I access my mail on an Apple device - this leaking information that might not be leaked otherwise?

Leaked to who, though? If you use this feature, then sure, Apple will know that you're using an Apple device.

But the purpose of the proxy is to shield the end-user's IP address, and probably their user agent, too. Some email providers already do this. If you load an image from a Yahoo mailbox, for example, the reported user agent is "YahooMailProxy; https://help.yahoo.com/kb/yahoo-mail-proxy-SLN28749.html".

Send a mail to bob@bob.com with an image of eztrack.com/bob123.jpg

If it’s loaded from an Apple ip you know Bob has an Apple device.

I see your point. If you're the kind of user who keeps automatic image download disabled, and rarely downloads them manually, keeping Mail Privacy Protection disabled might actually be more private. Fortunately, it isn't automatic. You'll have to enable it.

But if you do download a tracking pixel, email marketers already know you are using an Apple device. I see the Mail Privacy Protection feature as being primarily for people who want to automatically download images while sending less PII.

Only if you have a foolproof way of knowing Apple IP adresses

If Apple sends AppleMailProxy, they are leaking to newsletters that you use an Apple device.

Your interpretation of the current mail client behavior is accurate.

In the upcoming mail client changes, the mail client will be able to background-load those "unloaded images" through a proxy at Apple.

We don't yet know how that new behavior will intersect with the "don't load images until i permit it" behavior that you have enabled today, but presumably they can coexist peacefully as two options (that I'll be expecting and checking for, later on in the beta cycles):

"Background-load images when new mail arrives" Y/N

"Use Apple's privacy protecting proxy to load images" Y/N

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