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Open-tracking consent

info

This article covers per-recipient suppression of the open-tracking pixel using the reserved TrackingConsent recipient field. For the account-wide setting that disables the open beacon for every send, see Accelerator Admin section — Accounts. For how the beacon itself works, see ${Gears.beacon()}.

MessageGears supports suppressing the open-tracking pixel for individual recipients who have declined open-tracking consent. You pass a per-recipient consent flag in your recipient data, and MessageGears omits the open beacon for that recipient at render time — while the recipient continues to receive the email normally.

What changed and why​

European data protection authorities — France's CNIL and Italy's Garante — have ruled that an email open-tracking pixel is legally equivalent to a website cookie: for most marketing purposes it requires separate, explicit prior consent, distinct from the consent to receive the emails themselves.

In practical terms:

  • A recipient can keep receiving your emails while declining open-tracking. These are independent consents — declining open-tracking does not unsubscribe the recipient.
  • Silence is not consent. A recipient who has not responded to a consent request must be treated as having refused.
  • Pre-ticked opt-in boxes are not valid consent.

This applies to brands emailing recipients located in France or Italy, regardless of where the sender is based.

Enforcement timing

France's CNIL guidance has been in force since July 14, 2026; Italy's Garante allows a compliance window through October 28, 2026. Regulatory requirements and timelines can change — consult your legal team for how these rules apply to your program.

Capturing and storing the consent itself remains your responsibility (for example, in your preference center or consent-management platform). MessageGears acts on the flag you pass in recipient data.

How to use it​

Populate a reserved recipient field named TrackingConsent for each recipient, from your consent system:

  • Accelerator audiences: alias a column as TrackingConsent in your audience SQL query, the same way you alias EmailAddress or RecipientId. See Creating and editing audiences.
  • API sends: include a TrackingConsent field in the recipient data payload of transactional or bulk API submissions. See Cross channel recipients.
<RecipientList>
    <Recipient>
        <EmailAddress>user@somedomain.com</EmailAddress>
        <RecipientId>Recipient_Example</RecipientId>
        <TrackingConsent>false</TrackingConsent>
    </Recipient>
</RecipientList>

Use the exact field name TrackingConsent.

Value reference​

TrackingConsent valueOpen pixel
false, f, n, no, off, 0Suppressed — the recipient is not open-tracked
true, t, y, yes, on, 1Injected — the recipient is open-tracked, as today
Absent, blank, or unrecognizedInjected — tracked exactly as today

Value matching is case-insensitive and tolerant of surrounding whitespace (" False " is a recognized false).

The default is fail-open

A recipient with no TrackingConsent field, or with an unrecognized value, is tracked. Omitting the field does not suppress tracking — to suppress the open pixel you must send an explicit recognized-false value. An unreadable consent value never blocks a send; it simply defaults to today's behavior (tracked).

What is and isn't covered​

Consent is resolved per recipient, per send, from that send's recipient data. Different recipients in the same campaign can receive different treatment, and a recipient's treatment follows whatever value you pass on each send.

Covered​

When TrackingConsent is a recognized false, the open-tracking pixel is suppressed everywhere it would otherwise appear:

  • Both HTML and AMP email bodies.
  • Both automatic beacon injection (the account-level auto-tracking behavior) and manually placed beacons via the ${Gears.beacon()} and AMP beacon macros.
  • Marketing and transactional sends alike.

When suppressed, nothing is emitted — the pixel is simply not present in the rendered email (not a broken image or an empty request).

Not covered​

  • TrackingConsent governs the open-tracking pixel only. Click and link tracking is a separate mechanism and is not affected by this field.
  • Open-derived analytics (open rates, engagement scoring, and other open-based metrics — see the glossary on open rates) will not include suppressed recipients' opens, since those recipients emit no Open events. This is the intended effect of honoring the consent.

FAQ​

If I omit the field for some recipients, what happens? They are open-tracked, exactly as before this feature existed. Suppression requires an explicit recognized-false value.

Does this affect click tracking? No. Click and link tracking are unaffected. If you need to act on click-tracking consent, manage it separately.

Does the recipient still receive the email? Yes. Consent to receive email and consent to open-tracking are independent — TrackingConsent never prevents delivery.

How does this interact with the account-level Suppress Open Beacon setting? The account-level setting disables the automatic beacon for the entire account. TrackingConsent works per recipient and also suppresses manually placed beacon macros for that recipient.