Data Collection
Overview of data collection for email.
Email event data collection
Through our integration with our email service provider partner, Airship captures email event data to measure campaign performance, track engagement, take action on spam complaints, and to handle unsubscribe requests and other email bounce events. This information is used to populate reports, including Performance AnalyticsA customizable marketing intelligence tool that provides access to reports and graphs based on engagement data.. It is also made available for processing outside of Airship via Real-Time Data StreamingA service that delivers user-level events in real time to your backend or third-party systems using the Data Streaming API..
The following is a list of email events that we capture:
| Event name | Description |
|---|---|
| injection | Message is received by or injected into our email service provider partner |
| delivery | Remote Message Transfer Agent or Mailbox acknowledged receipt of a message |
| bounce | Remote Message Transfer Agent or Mailbox has permanently rejected a message |
| spam_complaint | Message was reported as spam by the recipient |
| out_of_band | Remote Message Transfer Agent or Mailbox initially reported acceptance of a message, but it has since reported that the message was not delivered |
| delay | Remote Mailbox has temporarily rejected a message |
| click | Recipient clicked a tracked link in a message |
| open | Recipient opened a message in a mail client, rendering a tracking pixel at the bottom of the message |
| initial_open | Recipient opened a message in a mail client, rendering a tracking pixel at the top of the message |
| list_unsubscribe | Recipient clicked the ‘unsubscribe’ button on their email client |
| link_unsubscribe | Recipient clicked an unsubscribe link in a received email |
Recipient details per event
The following is a list of recipient data that we capture for email events that we capture:
| Recipient data | Description | Applicable Events |
|---|---|---|
| Channel ID | Email channel identifier | All events |
| Email Address | Email address of the end-user | All events |
| Event Name | Type of engagement event | All events |
| User Agent | User agent string returned for email client or web browser | open, initial_open, click |
| Is Mobile | Indicates if this was a mobile device | open, initial_open, click |
| Is Prefetched | Indicates if this event was likely prefetched, for example through Apple MPP | open, initial_open, click |
| Is Proxy | Indicates if the user agent is a proxy server | open, initial_open, click |
| Agent Family | Agent or client type based on user agent | open, initial_open, click |
| Device Brand | Device Manufacturer based on user agent | open, initial_open, click |
| Device Family | Device Model based on user agent | open, initial_open, click |
| OS Family | Operating system based on user agent | open, initial_open, click |
| OS Version | Operating system version based on user agent | open, initial_open, click |
Tracking for click, open, and initial_open is enabled by default. You can disable open and click tracking per channel in Contact Management. You can disable open and click tracking per message when configuring Sender Information.
Email pixel tracking
Email opens are measured using a transparent pixel image embedded in the message HTML. When an email client loads the image, the request is recorded as an open event. This helps gather data that indicates the email’s effectiveness, aiding in marketing strategy and optimization of future campaigns.
* initial_open is triggered by a pixel positioned near the top of the message.
openis triggered by a pixel positioned near the bottom of the message.
Email marketers depend on being able to measure campaign success and audience engagement through pixel tracking. Changes in email client behavior, particularly within Gmail and Apple Mail, now influence the accuracy of these metrics.
Prefetching
Tracking pixel prefetching occurs when an email client, or intermediary proxy, requests remote images, including the tracking pixel, before or without a human viewing the message. These automated requests can register as opens and inflate open and unique open counts. In addition, device and location attribution may reflect proxy infrastructure rather than the end device.
Gmail prefetching and Apple MPP
When a user of Google’s Gmail receives an email during their session, whether on web or mobile app, Gmail triggers prefetching in order to download all email images just before display.
The prefetch request originates from a Google IP address and includes a specific user-agent string, which Airship uses to distinguish prefetch opens from genuine opens. An example of this user-agent string is Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/42.0.2311.135 Safari/537.36 Edge/12.246 Mozilla/5.0.
With the release of Apple iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8 and macOS 12 Monterey, Apple began offering Mail Privacy Protection (MPP), which hides the recipient’s email address from senders. This prevents the sender from being able to identify the recipient or use pixel tracking. Also, open timestamps from MPP do not represent the actual time a recipient viewed the message. Similar to Gmail, Apple’s proxy servers employ specific user-agent strings.
Most Apple Mail users enable MPP. The inability to discern genuine opens from Apple’s prefetch opens renders open statistics originating from Apple devices unreliable, so monitoring user-agent strings is important for understanding email opens’ origins.
Interpreting prefetched opens
Prefetching makes it hard to know whether an open is from a real user or an automated client. Simply filtering by user agent isn’t reliable since client behavior varies, and excluding prefetched traffic entirely can distort engagement metrics.
Airship addresses this challenge by combining multiple engagement signals rather than relying solely on open events. Our reporting emphasizes stronger engagement indicators, such as link clicks enriched with URL parameters, to provide a clearer view of genuine user behavior.
Airship separates prefetched opens from genuine opens, giving you flexibility in how you analyze your email performance.
In reporting:
- Message reports count prefetched and unknown opens separately from genuine opens. With the Click Map, you can learn how to position key elements where they are most likely to be seen and engage users. See Email Performance in Message Reports.
- Performance AnalyticsA customizable marketing intelligence tool that provides access to reports and graphs based on engagement data. lets you access separate Total and Unique opens using the
IsPrefetcheddimension. See Email in Performance Analytics to explore this data.
Best practices for analysis:
- Segment or exclude events flagged as
Is Prefetchedwhen analyzing performance. - Prioritize
clickevents and downstream conversion metrics over opens for KPI tracking. - Use the separated data to understand the impact of prefetching on your specific audience.
Data privacy
Airship makes HTTPS encryption (also referred to as TLS connection) available for data in transit to or from the Service. For more information, see Airship Security Measures . Email data collected by Airship is not transferred to any third parties unless a partner integration is enabled and configured by the application. For information on individual data requests, see Individual Data Privacy Rights.
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