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.