Tracking Pixels in Marketing Email Communications

This FAQ is provided for informational purposes only. It does not provide legal advice. Salesforce urges its customers to consult with their own legal counsel to familiarize themselves with the requirements that govern their specific situations. This information is provided as of the date of document publication, and may not account for changes after the date of publication.

What is an email tracking pixel?

An email tracking pixel is a tiny, usually invisible image not directly embedded in the body of the email but hosted on a remote server. Tracking pixels can be used for a number of purposes, including in marketing campaigns. It allows the sender to collect limited information about who opened their email messages, which is helpful to measure engagement and the effectiveness of an email campaign (open tracking).

When the recipient opens the email, the image is downloaded from a server, stored in the memory of the recipient’s device and the sender can receive information such as whether, when and how the email was opened.

What are the recommendations from EU regulators?

Following the growing use of tracking pixels in email communications, the French and Italian Data Protection Authorities, the CNIL and the Garante, published non-legally binding recommendations to help organizations comply with their privacy obligations in 2026, linked below (“Pixel Recommendations”). Salesforce services offer functionality to assist customers with the Pixel Recommendations, as detailed below.

The Pixel Recommendations clarify the existing legal framework (art. 5.3 of the ePrivacy Directive, transposed into national laws by art. 82 of the French Data Protection Act and art. 122 of the Italian Privacy Code), and take into account the EDPB Guidelines 2/2023 on Technical scope of ePrivacy Directive.

In the Pixel Recommendations, the CNIL and Garante advise that the use of tracking pixels in emails generally requires the recipient's prior consent, unless it is strictly necessary to enable electronic communication or to provide a service explicitly requested by the user. They also provide practical examples when consent is recommended or not for the use of tracking pixels (see below), and guidance on how to obtain consent in this context.

CNIL recommendations: available in French here and in English here

Garante recommendations: available here in Italian 

For which pixel use cases is consent recommended?

The CNIL and Garante have provided guidance on when prior consent for tracking pixels is generally required and when an exemption may apply, with some of the CNIL’s  use cases summarized below. This information is provided for illustration only; you should review the Pixel Recommendations and assess consent requirements based on your own interpretation of the guidance, specific use case(s), and implementation of pixels. 

Use cases where consent is recommended: 

• Analysis of the email opening rate to measure and optimize the performance of campaigns by customizing the content of messages or by adapting the frequency of sending or the communication channel (email, SMS, push notification, etc.)

• The creation of profiles of recipients with regard to the preferences and interests expressed in order to target them in contexts other than emails (on websites, mobile applications or via other communication channels)

• Detection and analysis of suspected fraud, such as the identification of unusual or massive openings of emails, which may indicate automated behavior (e.g. massive entries to a competition, attempts to exfiltrate information, etc.)

• The individual measure of the email open rate for deliverability purposes when performed outside the cases where consent is exempted 

Use cases where consent may not be required:

• The implementation of security measures involved in user authentication

• The individual measure of the opening rate of emails for deliverability purposes to (i) assess and adapt the communication channel or (ii) contribute to the demonstration of compliance with a legal obligation provided specific conditions are met.

How can you activate/deactivate tracking pixels in Salesforce services and at which level?

Marketing Cloud Next* 

AI-powered marketing that’s built on the Salesforce Platform.

*Marketing Cloud Next is an umbrella term including SKUs like Marketing Cloud Growth and Marketing Cloud Advanced Edition.

In Marketing Cloud Next you can enable or disable open tracking each time you send an email. Enabling or disabling open tracking at the send level allows you to honor individual recipient preferences by sending emails to separate groups of individuals who have consented to open tracking and those who haven’t. Please note that click tracking is separate from email open tracking and may also be optionally disabled at the send level.

Options available:

Use a Do Not Track Preference Attribute

In Marketing Cloud Next, create a field that stores the recipient’s Do Not Track preference. Then, use that field as criteria for a segment, or use a flow decision to break down your audience by preference. In a flow, open a send email element, and enable or disable email open tracking to correspond to each group. 

Create Subscriptions without Open Tracking

To manage tracking with communication subscriptions, create two subscriptions where one permits open tracking and one doesn’t. In a flow’s send email element, enable or disable email open tracking to correspond to each subscription. 

See Also: Email Engagement Data in Unified Messaging

Marketing Cloud Engagement

Personalized customer journeys for cross-channel marketing (formerly the Marketing Cloud). 

In Marketing Cloud Engagement, there are two ways of classifying do-not-track preferences: at the individual level and at the group level. You can enable or disable tracking per individual based on their preferences.  Doing so also affects click tracking.  You can also honor individual recipient preferences by sending emails to separate groups of individuals (e.g. those who have consented to open tracking and those who haven’t).

Options available:

Use a Do Not Track Preference Attribute

At the individual level, you can create a Do Not Track attribute that checks individual preferences at send-time. If a recipient disables tracking, the system automatically removes the open-tracking pixel and click-tracking wrappers from the email.

If you import lists or sync Data Extensions, set the DoNotTrack field value to 1 or true to tell SFMC to remove tracking code for that recipient. A value of 0, false, or null keeps tracking enabled. For triggered and real-time emails, pass the field via API payload. 

Create Subscriptions without Open Tracking

To manage tracking with communication preferences at the group level, create two subscriptions: one which permits open tracking and one that doesn’t. Manage the inclusion of the open tracking pixel directly within emails using AMPscript. The pixel can be conditionally included only for recipients who have given their consent. 

See Also: Tracking in Email Studio

Marketing Cloud Account Engagement

In Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, email pixel tracking is configured per business unit. These tracking settings are enabled for your business unit by default. Find separate settings for link tracking and open tracking on the Account Engagement Settings page.
To disable the pixel that tracks opens, deselect the Track all email opens. Link clicks are still tracked. To disable link tracking also, deselect Track email clicks. 

What should you do?

1. Start by consulting with your Data Protection Officer and/or Legal team so they can review the Pixel Recommendations and share their legal assessment 

2. Identify your specific use cases and your consent strategy

3. Identify your associated obligations

4. Assess which Salesforce products could best meet your needs

What if you have further questions?

We continue to make your success our top priority. If you have any questions, please contact your Account Executive or open a case with the Salesforce customer support team via the Help & Training success community here.