What is Apple Mail Privacy Protection?
How does Apple Mail Privacy Protection work?
Emails often contain a tiny remote image. When it loads, the sender's system records an "open". MPP changes that. Apple's legal page describes it as downloading remote content in the background by default, whether or not you engage with the email, through two separate relays that keep your IP address from the sender1. Apple's support guide says it also stops senders from seeing whether you opened an email2.
The result is simple. The email can be marked as opened even if the person never looked at it. Apple does not talk about open rates itself. The effect on your reports is our reading of how the feature works.
Why does it matter for reports?
Open rate was a favourite number. It was easy to read and it moved. After MPP, for readers on Apple Mail, it moves for other reasons.
Klaviyo, an email platform, says in a help article on flow open rates that MPP prefetches its tracking pixel, so open rates will be inflated3. It is a vendor source, but the mechanism matches Apple's description. The same article tells senders to track all deliverability metrics, not only open rates3.
So an open rate that rises after a change may show nothing at all. A subject line "win" built on opens can be a mirage.
What can you measure instead?
Measure what depends on the person, not on an image loading. Clicks, orders, revenue per email sent and unsubscribes all qualify. Apple's support guide says MPP does not extend to links2. Better still, compare against a group that did not get the email, which is the incrementality question: what would have happened without it?
This is why we prefer retention reports built on orders, not opens. For the wider case, read customer retention strategy for ecommerce. For metrics to use in place of opens, read open rate after Apple Mail Privacy Protection.
What email permissions and privacy rules apply to your list is for your counsel to decide.
Worked example
Easily confused with
Apple Mail Privacy Protection vs Email deliverability
Whether mail reaches the inbox rather than spam. Opens were once used as a rough guide. MPP weakens that.
Apple Mail Privacy Protection vs Email automation flows
Sequences sent when a customer acts. Flow reports are where inflated opens show up.
Apple Mail Privacy Protection vs Abandoned cart flow
One such flow. Judge it by recovered orders, not opens.
FAQ
Does MPP make open rate useless?
For Apple Mail readers it makes it unreliable as proof that someone read the email. Use it, if at all, as one weak signal next to clicks and orders.
Does MPP stop clicks being tracked?
No. Apple's support guide says MPP does not extend to links or attachments2. Still measure clicks and orders directly, and check how your own platform counts them.
Sources
Let’s find what’s actually working.
Next step. Email problems rarely fix themselves. See our retention and CRM service.