Email tracking can be a shitty practice.
You might be thinking, like, thats not that big a deal.
Youre reading an email.
I had the same stance when I first saw the news.
Subject: Ive been thinking about us.
He sends it to his former partner.
She reads it when she gets to work in Downtown Los Angeles at 9am.
She reads it again before dinner with friends in Pasadena at 7pm.
She reads it again at home in Santa Monica at 1am.
Over the weekend, she takes a trip to New York and reads it again.
And he knows she took a trip to New York.
To Superhumans credit, the company has since reversed course on that location-tracking aspect.
I am so very sorry for this.
When we built Superhuman, we focused only on the needs of our customers.
We did not consider potential bad actors.
I wholeheartedly apologize for not thinking through this more fully.
When they do that, opening an email also loads any minuscule tracking pixels a company has embedded inside.
Thats better than nothing, at least.
Of course, you have a few options for dealing with this dilemma, too.
(This step obviously wont work for desktop or mobile apps.)
Superhuman itself recommends two extensions:Ugly MailandPixelBlock(orPixelBlock 2).
Ugly Mail is available for both Firefox and Chrome, whereas Pixelblock only works with Chrome.
If you dont want a company to track you, dont pop swing open the emailfirst of all.
Once youve send yourself a test email, pull up your email app and open it.
Thats all you have to do.
(And if you cant find said test email, be sure to check your spam folder first.)
