Email Open Tracking Pixels: Consent Strategy and Required Actions - July 2026

July 7, 2026

ACTION REQUESTED

European data protection guidelines now require specific consent for the use of open tracking pixels in marketing emails, starting with contacts located in France (in accordance with CNIL regulations). Sending marketing emails to newsletter subscribers remains possible, but the use of open data for marketing purposes must now be more strictly regulated.

At Splio, we work to support our clients through this evolution, both through operational recommendations and product development. Each brand, however, retains responsibility for its consent strategy, the classification of its uses, and the compliance of its data processing.

Splio's consent strategy

We decided to offer a differentiated consent management strategy for newsletter sign-ups and open tracking pixel usage. The goal is to allow brands to clearly distinguish between two things: consent to receive email communications and consent to the use of open data for marketing purposes.

In practical terms, a contact can opt in to the newsletter and therefore continue to receive marketing communications by email, without necessarily opting in to open tracking. In this case, the brand can still send them emails, but it must not use their open data to trigger marketing scenarios, enrich their profile, score them, segment them, or personalize their future communications.

Conversely, when a contact has opted in to both the newsletter and the open tracking pixel, open data can continue to be used for the relevant marketing use cases, in accordance with the consent given. This approach allows brands to maintain their ability to communicate with their audiences while more precisely respecting the choices expressed by each contact.

Feel free to refer to our recommendations in this article and to involve your DPO or legal counsel to validate the strategy you have chosen.

General Principle

From July 14th, the tracking of openings will automatically be subject to consent.

If you wish to continue using open data with the ability to identify the contact who opened the email, please follow the recommendations below. If you do not wish to use this data at the individual level, Splio will anonymize opens for all your contacts on July 15, 2026 (this date applies to customers in France only).

Key rules if you wish to collect tracking consent

Before July 14th, you will need to:

1. Prepare two distinct types of communications:

• For active contacts created before April 14, 2026: send them a communication offering them the opportunity to opt out of tracking openings if they wish.

  • Make sure you correctly assign the category tracking_pixel_07_2026 to this campaign so that Splio can identify it.

• For active contacts created from April 14, 2026 onwards: send them a communication to request their explicit consent to track openings if they wish.

2. Prepare the consent collection form

Use the Splio form:

• A default form is automatically created for each existing universe.

• All texts can be modified by users.

• It is possible to create multiple forms, including in different languages:

  • The forms are available in French, English, Spanish, Italian, German, and Dutch. For any other language, the display switches to English.

• To insert the link to the default consent collection form in your email: go to Special Link > then select Link to default form .

• This link always redirects to this default form , regardless of the contact language.

Use your own form :

If you wish to insert a form other than the default one:

• Hover over the text in your email.

• Click on the Insert a link icon.

• Paste the variable containing your form's ID (you can copy it from the Preview and Share tab).

Example: {{tracking_consent_url | form_id: '019ef9bb-b5c2-7782-87bc-a86213d9eea4'}}

3. Check the deliverability tips

1. For requests for explicit consent, a dedicated page should be provided, clearly outlining the purposes of tracking email opens and allowing the contact to give their consent through a positive action. Consent should not be recorded simply by clicking a link in the email, to prevent fraudulent consents generated by security bots that can automatically follow links, particularly in certain professional environments.

2. Choose the right sending subdomain for this communication. Even if the message may seem service-oriented, it is recommended to avoid using a transactional subdomain if volumes are high, in order not to compromise critical emails such as order confirmations, password resets or account alerts.

3. Plan your mailings gradually, especially if you have a large number of contacts. Sending a large volume of mail all at once can impact deliverability. It's therefore best to spread the mailings out over several hours or days and plan well in advance of July 14th. Make sure you only include active contacts .

4. Include a link in your future emails to opt out of open tracking, easily accessible for the contact.

The impacts on statistics

• For contacts who have consented to tracking: you will continue to have access to opening events and will be able to export this information.

• For contacts who have not consented to tracking: their open events will be anonymized in the exports. Your open statistics will not be affected .

Filtering opt-in/opt-out contacts

In Target as well as Automations, you can find a new condition labeled "Tracking consent" to segment contacts who opted in and those who opted out.

Creating and updating new contacts

Via API

You can now include email tracking consent in the Splio APIs for creating and updating contacts. This field is optional.

Via Datahub

Three new optional fields for contact imports are now available from Datahub :

• tracking_consent_email_open ``1`, `0`, `true`, `false``

• tracking_consent_email_open_date ``YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS``

• tracking_consent_email_open_source for example "shopify", "form", etc.

They can be used in two ways:

• By using a CSV file. For example:

email;tracking_consent_email_open;tracking_consent_email_open_date;tracking_consent_email_source
contact@splio.com;true;;
contact2@splio.com;false;2025-01-01 00:00:00;form

• By including them during regular contact imports in addition to the usual fields.