# HawkOpen — Questions and answers (English)
> Short, checked answers about email tracking, read receipts, campaigns, documents and signatures, plans, privacy and the law. Each answer says what the product does today.
> This information is general and concerns the features of HawkOpen (TriStiX S.L.). It is not individual legal advice or an assessment of whether a specific campaign or document complies with the law. Customers make their own decisions about their activities and, where needed, consult a qualified specialist. This does not limit any rights they have under mandatory law.
URL: https://hawkopen.com/en/faq
JSON: https://hawkopen.com/en/faq.json
Checked: 2026-11-13
## How email tracking works
Tracking images, tracked links, what HawkOpen records about a sent email and how to start.
URL: https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works
### What is email tracking and how does it work?
URL: https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works/how-email-tracking-works
Email tracking adds an invisible image and redirected links to the message you send, and records when the image is loaded or a link is clicked. HawkOpen also checks each event against named rules to tell likely human activity from a privacy proxy or a scanner.
HawkOpen gives every recipient their own copy, and a tracked copy has a unique, hard-to-guess image address. The image is 1×1 pixel and invisible. When the recipient’s mail app downloads it, HawkOpen records a possible open. Links that start with https are replaced by a short HawkOpen address that records the click and then takes the reader to the original page.
A loaded image is not the same as a read email. Apple Mail, Gmail and company security filters often load images or open links without a person. HawkOpen gives each event a category, such as **privacy proxy**, **security scanner** or **human**, and shows the code of the rule behind it.
HawkOpen adds these elements only after your company’s owner or an administrator switches tracking on, and only to the copies of recipients whose consent is recorded, separately for opens and for links; everyone else gets an ordinary email. Every tracked email ends with the notice “This message contains HawkOpen tracking elements.” and the link “Do not track my activity”, where the recipient can refuse tracking by that company.
Where rules that require consent apply, tracking may start only after that consent has been obtained. The link in the message lets the recipient withdraw consent later.
Related questions: [What is an email tracking pixel?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works/what-is-an-email-tracking-pixel), [How do I track email opens?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works/how-to-track-email-opens), [Does an open prove that someone read my email?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/accuracy/does-an-open-prove-the-email-was-read)
Checked: 2026-11-12
### What is an email tracking pixel?
URL: https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works/what-is-an-email-tracking-pixel
A tracking pixel is a tiny invisible image with an address unique to one recipient. When a mail app downloads it, the sender’s tool learns that the image was requested, which is a possible open, not proof that someone read the email.
In HawkOpen the pixel is a transparent 1×1 GIF image placed at the end of the message. Each recipient gets a different, hard-to-guess address, so a request tells you which copy it came from. Together with the time, HawkOpen keeps technical details of the request, such as the type of network and the mail program, to judge who made it.
The pixel only works when the mail app loads images. If the recipient blocks images, no open is recorded. If Apple Mail, Gmail or a security filter loads the image in advance, an open appears even though nobody looked. That is why HawkOpen labels each request with a category and the rule that decided it.
Related questions: [What is email tracking and how does it work?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works/how-email-tracking-works), [What is the difference between a tracking pixel and a cookie?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works/tracking-pixel-vs-cookie), [How can I tell if an email I received is tracked?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/detect-block/how-to-detect-email-tracking)
Checked: 2026-11-11
### How do I track email opens?
URL: https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works/how-to-track-email-opens
Create a HawkOpen account and connect your mailbox. Open tracking works only after your company’s owner or an administrator switches it on, and only for recipients whose consent to open tracking is recorded; then send from the extension in Gmail, Outlook on the web or Yahoo Mail, or from the HawkOpen dashboard. Open tracking is included in the free plan without a limit on opens.
1. Connect a mailbox: sign in with Google or Microsoft, or enter the IMAP and SMTP details of another mailbox. 2. The owner or an administrator accepts the Message Tracking Terms and switches open tracking on for the company. 3. Collect consents: a recipient gives one through the HawkOpen consent form behind a link you pass on, or the owner or an administrator records consents your company collected. 4. Install the HawkOpen extension for Chrome or Firefox, or use the dashboard, and write your email. 5. Watch the events: each image load and click appears with a category and a rule code. Recipients without a consent get an ordinary email without tracking.
The extension tracks a message sent to one recipient. To send the same email to several people, use the dashboard: each person gets a separate copy with its own tracker, so you know who opened it.
Remember that an open is a signal, not proof of reading. Apple Mail and Gmail often load the image without the person, and HawkOpen marks those events accordingly.
Related questions: [How do I track sent emails and replies?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works/how-to-track-sent-emails), [How do I track email opens in Outlook?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/mailboxes/how-to-track-email-opens-in-outlook), [How can I see if my Gmail message was opened without a Workspace read receipt?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/read-receipts/email-tracking-vs-read-receipt-gmail-free)
Checked: 2026-11-12
### How do I track sent emails and replies?
URL: https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works/how-to-track-sent-emails
For each email sent through HawkOpen you see its sending state and, on the Pro and Business plans, replies; for recipients whose copy is tracked (your company switched tracking on and their consent is recorded) you also see image loads and link clicks. Each open and click carries a category; notifications come for replies and fired alerts, not for a single open or click.
The sending state tells you whether the message was only prepared, accepted by the sending server, still waiting or rejected. An email prepared in the extension stays **prepared** until HawkOpen has stronger evidence, because preparing a message does not prove it was sent.
Replies are detected on the Pro and Business plans by checking the connected mailbox. On those plans you can also set alerts, for example when there is no reply after a number of hours. The free plan has one fixed rule: an alert when there is no reply within 24 hours.
Browser notifications from the extension and the dashboard come for replies, bounces, unsubscribes and fired alerts; a single open or click does not send one. Opens by Apple Mail, Gmail’s proxy or a scanner are listed with their category and never fire an alert.
Related questions: [How do I track email opens?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works/how-to-track-email-opens), [How can I get a notification when someone opens my email?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/mailboxes/get-notified-when-someone-opens-outlook-email), [How can I prove that an email was sent or received?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works/how-to-prove-an-email-was-sent-or-received)
Checked: 2026-11-12
### What is the difference between a tracking pixel and a cookie?
URL: https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works/tracking-pixel-vs-cookie
> This information is general and concerns the features of HawkOpen (TriStiX S.L.). It is not individual legal advice or an assessment of whether a specific campaign or document complies with the law. Customers make their own decisions about their activities and, where needed, consult a qualified specialist. This does not limit any rights they have under mandatory law. Last reviewed: November 11, 2026.
A cookie is a small file a website stores in your browser and reads again later. A tracking pixel stores nothing: it is an image whose download is recorded by the server that hosts it. HawkOpen’s tracking image and tracked links set no cookies.
A cookie can recognise the same browser across many visits and websites. A pixel in an email works differently: the address of the image is unique to one recipient’s copy, so the request itself says which message was opened. HawkOpen records the time and technical details of that request and gives it a category.
For the law, the difference is smaller than it looks. The legal analysis HawkOpen works from notes that, according to the European Data Protection Board’s guidelines on the technical scope of the ePrivacy rules, a tracked link or a solution without cookies is not automatically outside the assessment of tracking technologies. In a 2014 report, the Spanish data protection authority also treated pixels in advertising emails as needing prior consent. Not using cookies therefore does not by itself settle whether consent or information is needed.
Related questions: [What is an email tracking pixel?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works/what-is-an-email-tracking-pixel), [Is email open tracking legal?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/recipients/is-email-open-tracking-legal)
Checked: 2026-11-11
### How can I prove that an email was sent or received?
URL: https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works/how-to-prove-an-email-was-sent-or-received
HawkOpen records when the sending server accepted your message, whether it bounced, and later image loads, clicks and replies, each with a time. That is a useful trail, but HawkOpen is not a registered email or qualified electronic delivery service.
**Accepted** means the server you send through took the message for delivery. It does not show that the message reached the inbox, and it is not a read receipt. A bounce shows that delivery failed. An image load or click shows that something requested the tracking elements, which may be a person or a machine.
The strongest sign of receipt is something the recipient does on purpose, such as replying. If you need formal proof for a contract or a court, use a service built for that, such as registered email or a qualified electronic delivery service, and check what your local rules accept.
Related questions: [How do I track sent emails and replies?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works/how-to-track-sent-emails), [What is the difference between a delivery receipt, a read receipt and open tracking?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/read-receipts/read-receipt-vs-open-tracking), [How do I request a confirmation of receipt for an email?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/read-receipts/request-email-acknowledgement-of-receipt)
Checked: 2026-11-11
### Can you track an email after it has been sent?
URL: https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works#can-you-track-an-email-after-sending
No. Tracking works only for emails sent through HawkOpen, because the tracking image and tracked links are added to each copy before it leaves. An email already sent without them cannot be tracked afterwards.
For a message that matters, send a new one, or a short follow-up, through HawkOpen. Its delivery status, opens, clicks and, on Pro and Business, replies are then recorded from that moment.
Related questions: [How do I track sent emails and replies?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works/how-to-track-sent-emails), [What is email tracking and how does it work?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works/how-email-tracking-works)
Checked: 2026-11-11
### Can I generate an email tracking pixel myself?
URL: https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works#email-tracking-pixel-generator
HawkOpen has no standalone pixel generator. It creates a separate tracking image for each recipient when it sends the email, and only then can it link an image load to that person and classify it.
A home-made pixel is a tiny image on a server that logs requests. On its own it cannot tell Apple Mail, Gmail’s proxy or a scanner from a person, and it gives no notice to the recipient. HawkOpen adds the classification rules and a notice in every tracked email.
Where rules that require consent apply, tracking may start only after that consent has been obtained. The link in the message lets the recipient withdraw consent later.
Related questions: [What is an email tracking pixel?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works/what-is-an-email-tracking-pixel), [What is a Meta, Facebook or conversion tracking pixel, and is it the same as an email pixel?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works#other-kinds-of-tracking-pixels)
Checked: 2026-11-11
### What is individual-delivery attribution?
URL: https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works#individual-delivery-attribution
It means every recipient gets their own copy of the email, with their own tracking image and links, so an event can be tied to that one recipient. One message to several people in To or Cc cannot tell them apart.
From the dashboard or a campaign, HawkOpen sends a separate copy to each recipient. The extension tracks one recipient per message. An **open signal** is a recorded request for the tracking image; it is a technical event, not proof of reading.
Related questions: [Can I tell if my email was forwarded?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/accuracy/can-i-tell-if-email-was-forwarded), [Does an open prove that someone read my email?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/accuracy/does-an-open-prove-the-email-was-read)
Checked: 2026-11-11
### What is a Meta, Facebook or conversion tracking pixel, and is it the same as an email pixel?
URL: https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works#other-kinds-of-tracking-pixels
No. An advertising pixel is code on a website that reports visits and purchases to an ad platform. An email tracking pixel is a tiny image inside one email that reports when that image is loaded. HawkOpen works only with email.
Questions about setting up an ad pixel belong with the ad platform. In HawkOpen, each email pixel is unique to one recipient and every tracked email carries a notice that it is tracked.
Where rules that require consent apply, tracking may start only after that consent has been obtained. The link in the message lets the recipient withdraw consent later.
Related questions: [What is an email tracking pixel?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works/what-is-an-email-tracking-pixel), [What is the difference between a tracking pixel and a cookie?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works/tracking-pixel-vs-cookie)
Checked: 2026-11-11
### What counts as certain evidence in HawkOpen?
URL: https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works#what-evidence-hawkopen-provides
Only something the recipient did themselves, such as a reply. Opens and clicks are assessments of “possible” or “likely”, never certain, because machines can trigger them too.
Reply detection is part of Pro and Business and reads only the headers of incoming messages, not their content. Proposal acceptance and simple e-signatures are also the recipient’s own acts, but they work with files, which wait for the malware-scanning service; until it is switched on they are a preview.
Related questions: [Does an open prove that someone read my email?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/accuracy/does-an-open-prove-the-email-was-read), [What does HawkOpen not do or not promise?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works#what-hawkopen-does-not-do)
Checked: 2026-11-11
### What does HawkOpen not do or not promise?
URL: https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works#what-hawkopen-does-not-do
HawkOpen does not prove that an email was read, does not show where a person is beyond the country of the network, does not track emails sent without it, and its e-signature is a simple, not a qualified one.
It also does not get around image blocking, does not recognise your own opens automatically, and does not yet accept files: PDF sharing, proposals and e-signatures wait for the malware-scanning service and are a preview until then.
What it does is record image loads and clicks in the copies of recipients who consented to tracking, replies on paid plans, and explain each verdict with rule codes.
Related questions: [What counts as certain evidence in HawkOpen?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works#what-evidence-hawkopen-provides), [What exactly does HawkOpen record about a sent email?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works#what-hawkopen-records)
Checked: 2026-11-12
### What exactly does HawkOpen record about a sent email?
URL: https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works#what-hawkopen-records
For each recipient: the delivery status and, on Pro and Business, replies; in a tracked copy also every request for the tracking image and every click on a tracked link. Each event has a time, a category, a confidence and the rule codes behind it.
It also notes whether the end of the message was displayed and, at most, the country of the network a request came from, never a city or street. For replies it reads only message headers, not the content.
Related questions: [What does the event history for a recipient show?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/reports#event-history-per-recipient), [What does HawkOpen not do or not promise?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works#what-hawkopen-does-not-do)
Checked: 2026-11-12
### What is HawkOpen and who makes it?
URL: https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works#what-is-hawkopen
HawkOpen is an app for tracking the emails you send: it records image loads, link clicks and replies and explains each with a category and rule codes. It is made by TriStiX S.L., a company in Spain.
You connect a Gmail or Microsoft account, or any mailbox with IMAP and SMTP, and send from the dashboard or with the browser extension. PDF sharing, proposals and simple e-signatures are also built in, but they wait for the malware-scanning service and are a preview until it is switched on.
Related questions: [What is email tracking and how does it work?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works/how-email-tracking-works), [What does HawkOpen not do or not promise?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works#what-hawkopen-does-not-do)
Checked: 2026-11-11
### Can I send a registered or certified email with HawkOpen?
URL: https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works#registered-or-certified-email
No. HawkOpen is not a registered or certified delivery service such as Italian PEC or an electronic registered mail provider. It sends ordinary email and shows its delivery status and signals.
“Accepted” in HawkOpen means the sending server took the message; opens and clicks are estimates. If you need formal proof of delivery, use a service built for that; HawkOpen can sit alongside it for ordinary follow-up.
Related questions: [How can I prove that an email was sent or received?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/how-works/how-to-prove-an-email-was-sent-or-received), [Does HawkOpen confirm that an email was delivered?](https://hawkopen.com/en/faq/accuracy#delivery-status-confirmation)
Checked: 2026-11-11