Apples mail privacy protection
Apple's Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) is a feature that helps protect your email privacy by preventing senders from knowing whether you've opened their emails or not. Here's how it works:
What is Mail Privacy Protection?
Mail Privacy Protection is a feature that Apple introduced in iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey. It's designed to prevent email providers from tracking your online behavior by hiding your IP address and preventing them from knowing whether you've opened an email or not.
How does Mail Privacy Protection work?
When you enable Mail Privacy Protection, your email client (e.g., Mail on your iPhone or Mac) will use a proxy server to fetch emails from your email provider. This proxy server acts as an intermediary between your device and the email provider, hiding your IP address and making it difficult for the provider to track your online behavior.
Here's what happens when you enable Mail Privacy Protection:
- Your email client (e.g., Mail) sends a request to the proxy server to fetch emails from your email provider.
- The proxy server fetches the emails from your email provider and sends them back to your email client.
- Your email client displays the emails to you, but the email provider doesn't know whether you've opened the email or not.
Benefits of Mail Privacy Protection
Mail Privacy Protection offers several benefits, including:
- Improved email privacy: By hiding your IP address, you can prevent email providers from tracking your online behavior and building a profile of your interests.
- Reduced targeted advertising: By preventing email providers from knowing whether you've opened an email or not, you can reduce the amount of targeted advertising you receive.
- Enhanced security: Mail Privacy Protection can help prevent email providers from sending you malicious emails or phishing attempts, as they won't be able to track your online behavior.
How to enable Mail Privacy Protection
To enable Mail Privacy Protection on your iPhone or iPad:
- Go to Settings > Mail > Privacy Protection.
- Toggle on "Protect Mail Activity" to enable Mail Privacy Protection.
On your Mac:
- Go to System Preferences > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Privacy.
- Select "Protect Mail Activity" to enable Mail Privacy Protection.
Important notes
- Mail Privacy Protection only works with email providers that support it. Not all email providers support this feature, so you may not see the benefits of Mail Privacy Protection with all of your email accounts.
- Mail Privacy Protection may affect the functionality of some email features, such as email tracking or read receipts.
- If you're using a third-party email client, you may need to check with the client's developer to see if they support Mail Privacy Protection.