Email tracking consent

Noticeable can tell you when subscribers open your emails and which links they click. In the European Union, the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, privacy rules (the ePrivacy Directive and the GDPR, as applied by authorities such as the French CNIL) usually require the subscriber's prior consent before this kind of tracking.

The Require subscriber consent for tracking option lets you ask for that consent and makes sure your emails are only tracked for the people who agreed.

When should I turn it on?

Turn it on if some of your subscribers are in the EU/EEA or the UK, or if your organization is based there. That covers most European companies and any company with European subscribers.

You may not need it if all your subscribers are in countries where tracking email opens and clicks does not require consent, such as the United States. Whether it applies to you depends on where your subscribers are and what you use the tracking for. If you are unsure, check with your data protection officer or legal advisor.

The option is off by default. Your emails are tracked exactly as before until you turn it on.

How to turn it on

1. Go to Emails → Settings.
2. In the sender settings, next to Links tracking and Opens tracking, turn on Require subscriber consent for tracking.

Links tracking and Opens tracking still decide what can be tracked for your project. The consent option decides for whom.

How subscribers are asked

Once the option is on, your subscribers can answer in these places:

• Newspage subscription page: an unticked checkbox, "Let {your project} know when I open its emails and click their links", with a short explanation. The box is never ticked in advance.
• Subscription widget: the same checkbox.
• Email preferences page: the same choice as a toggle. Every email you send links to this page, so subscribers can change their mind at any time.

Leaving the box unticked counts as a refusal. Subscribers who never saw the question count as not asked.

What is tracked for each subscriber

"Tracked" always assumes that Links tracking or Opens tracking is on for your project.

Last open day only

The CNIL recommendation exempts one narrow use from consent: knowing whether a subscriber still reads your emails, so you can slow down or stop sending to inactive people.

For subscribers who signed up themselves and were never asked, Noticeable keeps only the day of their last open, replaced each time they open another email. It keeps no time, no IP address, no location, no device and no per-email record. Their links are never rewritten, and their opens are not counted in your campaign statistics.

Subscribers you add yourself

When you add subscribers from the dashboard or through the API, you can state that the person agreed to tracking, but only if you actually collected that consent:

• In the dashboard, turn on This person agreed to email tracking in the Add subscriber dialog.
• With the GraphQL API, set trackingConsent to ALLOWED, REFUSED or NOT_ASKED in createEmailSubscription or updateEmailSubscription:

  
  

  mutation {
    createEmailSubscription(input: {
      projectId: "YOUR_PROJECT_ID"
      email: "jane@example.com"
      status: SUBSCRIBED
      trackingConsent: ALLOWED
    }) {
      emailSubscription {
        email
        trackingConsent
      }
    }
  }
  

Reading a subscriber returns trackingConsent as ALLOWED, REFUSED or NOT_ASKED. You can only set ALLOWED or REFUSED: once a person has answered, they can't be set back to not asked.

Confirmation emails

Double opt-in confirmation emails are never tracked, whether or not the option is on. They go out before the person has had a chance to answer.

What changes in your statistics

With the option on:

• Open and click rates are computed from the subscribers who allowed tracking.
• The Events tab only shows opens and clicks of subscribers who allowed tracking.
• The subscriber details show the day of the last open, when known.

Expect lower open and click numbers than before. Fewer people are measured, not fewer people reading.

Seeing and proving consent

• In Emails → Subscribers, filter on Tracking allowed, Tracking not asked or Tracking refused.
• Click a subscriber to see their answer, when and where they gave it (newspage, widgerd or API), and the day of their last open.
• Every change of answer is kept as an event with its date, origin, IP address and browser. That is the proof of consent you may be asked for.

The Export to CSV of your subscribers lists their details.

Turning the option off

Turning the option off brings back the previous behavior: Links tracking and Opens tracking apply to every subscriber again. The answers already given are kept. If you turn the option back on, they apply again straight away.

What to add to your privacy policy

Your privacy policy should tell subscribers how their emails are measured. You can ada

We use tracking pixels and tracked links in our emails, through our provider Noticeable.io, to know whether you open our emails and click their links, but only if you allow it when you subscribe or in your email preferences. You can change your choice at any time from the link at the bottom of every email. If you have not given your consent, we only keep the day you last opened one of our emails, so that we can stop writing to you if you no longer read us.

Frequently asked questions

Do I lose all statistics for people who haven't answered?
You keep the day of their last open, if they subscribed themselves, which is enough to spot inactive subscribers. You lose per-email opens and clicks for them.

Can I ask my existing subscribers for consent?
Yes. Existing subscribers count as not asked until they answer. They can answer at any time from their email preferences page, which every email you send links to.

Is consent the same as subscribing?
No. Subscribing means agreeing to receive your emails. Tracking consent means agreeing that you measure how those emails are read. Subscribers can do one without the other.

Does Noticeable use this data for its own purposes?
No. Noticeable processes it on your behalf, only to provide the statistics and inactivity information described here.

This article describes how Noticeable works. It is not legal advice.

Updated on: 09/24/2026