Will Apple end the newsletter boom?
0Reported today on The Verge
For the full article visit: https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/8/22525195/apple-mail-protection-privacy-pixel-tracking-newsletters-substack
Reported today in The Verge.
Will Apple end the newsletter boom?
Today, let's talk about one of Apple's many announcements this week at its Worldwide Developer Conference, which some see as a possible threat to the rise of journalism distributed by email. If that sounds self-indulgent, given that it's coming from a journalist who distributes his work via email, I apologize. But it touches on so many of the subjects of interest to us here - a tech giant's ability to reshape markets to its liking; how journalism will navigate the platform era; what we mean when we talk about privacy - that I hope I can pique your interest at least a little.
Start with the announcement. On Monday at WWDC, Apple announced Mail Privacy Protection, which will limit the amount of data that people who send you emails can collect about you. Here's how the company describes it:
In the Mail app, Mail Privacy Protection stops senders from using invisible pixels to collect information about the user. The new feature helps users prevent senders from knowing when they open an email, and masks their IP address so it can't be linked to other online activity or used to determine their location.
When you eventually update your iPhone to iOS 15 this fall, you'll see a screen at launch that invites you to opt in.
iOS 15: First launch of Mail app. pic.twitter.com/W4ewu9XFCk
Let's assume most Apple Mail users opt in. How necessary is this data to building email-based businesses? Over the past day I've read and heard lots of disagreement.
Some quick background for the non-email obsessives. Long ago, email marketers began including invisible pixels in the emails they send you; when you open their messages, those pixels load, telling the sender that you read their message, and might also infer your location fr