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Wow, this behavior seems perfect for sneakily verifying that an email was received. And the user can't do anything against it. It's not a perfect replacement for tracking pixels, though, if you want to figure out whether an email was opened. Creepy.

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I don’t think it would be that useful to be honest. I don’t think it happens when the email is opened by the end user, but some point during the delivery process. And even then you’d only find out from some email providers - not everyone does it

> Wow, this behavior seems perfect for sneakily verifying that an email was received.

Isn't that pretty much the definition of "confirming your email address" transactional emails? Wouldn't really call this "sneaky".

I read it as anyone – including spammers – who puts link in will get a head request to it from the email provider, thus providing information – even if just that the address is real.

However, the absence of a bounce probably also does that, albeit less reliably.

Some email providers don't bounce/reject specifically to not leak that information as far as I know.

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