Apple Mail Privacy Protection
An Apple Mail setting that hides the user's IP address from senders and prevents them from seeing whether a message was opened, which breaks pixel-based open tracking.
What it means
Apple's iPhone guide says Mail Privacy Protection hides your IP address so senders cannot link it to your other online activity or determine your exact location, and prevents senders from seeing whether you opened their message. Users turn it on in Mail settings under Privacy Protection, as Protect Mail Activity. Apple notes that it does not extend to links or attachments.
The effect on senders is in measurement. Because the sender can no longer see whether the message was opened, tracking pixels stop reflecting reading, and location or device data taken from opens is unreliable. Mailchimp warns that bot activity such as MPP can falsely inflate open and click metrics.
Campaign tests and sunset rules built on opens should use other signals for Apple Mail users: clicks, replies, conversions and purchases.
Related terms
On this site
Sources
What this definition rests on. The wording is ours; the facts are theirs.
- Apple Support: Use Mail Privacy Protection on iPhonesupport.apple.com
- Mailchimp: About open and click ratesmailchimp.com
All 432 terms in the glossaryThe wiki: blocklists and bounce codes