Tracking methodology
How Vero Classifies Email Opens
Vero records the request for a tracking pixel, then evaluates its network, user agent, timing, and relationship to the sender. Direct opens, mail-provider proxies, privacy prefetches, scanners, and self-views are kept as different event types.
What a direct open can reveal.
When a recipient's mail client loads the pixel directly, the request can expose an IP address and user agent. Vero uses those fields to derive a network name, approximate city, device, operating system, browser, and mail platform. Location is approximate, and privacy rules limit what Vero retains in the EU and UK.
What Vero separates from a direct open.
- Gmail image-proxy requests are labeled as proxy activity because Google fetched the image, not necessarily the recipient's device.
- Apple Mail Privacy Protection prefetches are not promoted to confirmed human reads.
- Known security scanners and automated link checks are kept separate from recipient activity.
- Sender self-views are suppressed using compose-time and sender-device context.
Where open tracking stops.
No pixel-based tracker can record an open when remote images never load. A provider proxy can also hide the recipient's device and IP. Vero reports that limitation instead of inventing missing detail. Link clicks are usually a stronger action signal, although automated scanners must still be filtered.
Read the longer guide to why email tracking sometimes misses an open.