How about this:
- The browser does not load any images by default. <img> tags are replaced by gray rectangles
- User must click on the placeholder rectangle to load the image
- User can add image URLs to a whitelist so they load by default
- The browser does not load any images by default. <img> tags are replaced by gray rectangles
- User must click on the placeholder rectangle to load the image
- User can add image URLs to a whitelist so they load by default
In the same way that a lot of people browse the web with noscript
Of course, that was during dial-up days, so it was a huge quality of life feature.
Edit: I forgot the grandparent mentioned them. Ublock Origin implements the parent's proposal,so I mentioned it.
Focussing on file size is a mistake because you can just make the tracking image display something decorative or whatever. I was referring to a solution for not loading third party resources without manual approval, which would need to be more general than just blocking single pixels to be robust (although hueristics might be good enough for some cases)