The French data protection authority, the CNIL, published its recommendation on tracking pixels in email on 14 April 2026. It addresses what senders tell recipients, the purposes for which pixels are used, consent and withdrawal. Its FAQ also answers practical questions about deliverability and anonymous or aggregated data.
Interspire Email Marketer 8.8.0 gives instance owners several ways to limit or control tracking. There is no France setting and IEM does not determine a recipient’s location or the purpose of a mailing. The comparison below describes the product, then points to the parts of the CNIL material an operator may want to review. It does not classify any mode as compliant, exempt or suitable for a particular send.
Interspire provides tools to control email tracking. It makes no representation that any configuration satisfies the CNIL recommendation, GDPR, ePrivacy or any other law. The instance owner is the data controller and is responsible for enabling and configuring these controls, for the disclosure text shown to recipients, and for obtaining their own legal advice.
How the modes relate to the CNIL material
| IEM mode | What IEM does | Point to review in the CNIL material |
|---|---|---|
| Off | Adds no open pixel and does not rewrite links for click tracking. | No IEM tracking pixel is included. |
| Minimal (date only) | Uses a recipient-specific pixel to keep one day-level last-open date per contact. It keeps no open history or click events. | The recommendation discusses a last-known open date for a specific deliverability purpose. IEM cannot establish what a particular mailing is for or how the date will be used. |
| Aggregate (anonymous) | Uses the same pixel for every recipient of a campaign and keeps campaign-level counts, not individual open records. | FAQ question 18 addresses pixels that collect anonymous or aggregated data. Because the pixel has no recipient identifier, IEM cannot associate a later load of it with an individual withdrawal. This mode is not likely compatible with the CNIL’s mandate. |
| Individual (consented) | Records recipient-level opens and clicks only when IEM’s recorded tracking choices authorise them. | The recommendation discusses information, purposes, consent and withdrawal. The operator supplies the notice, defines the purposes and reviews the choices collected. |
| Individual | Records recipient-level opens and clicks without consulting IEM’s consent records. | The recommendation discusses when and how consent is collected. This mode does not make that check in IEM. |
The modes are not legal categories. In particular, Minimal still places a recipient-specific pixel in the message, and Aggregate still places a pixel in the message even though its stored counts are not tied to a contact. For a fuller explanation of the reports each mode can produce, see Email Tracking Modes Explained.
Put the recipient’s choice into the workflow
For Individual (consented), IEM can show tracking choices on a subscription form and store the resulting decisions by purpose. You define the purpose wording and the disclosure. A campaign declares the purpose for which its tracking is used; IEM checks that purpose and the current measurement choice when an open or click arrives. A recipient can later use the %%trackingpreferencelink%% link to change tracking preferences without unsubscribing. IEM stops new tracking writes after withdrawal and attempts to remove existing open and click history.
Check the legacy tracking policy as well. With Off, contacts without a recorded choice remain untracked in Individual (consented). Transitional continues tracking those contacts with a notice and stop-tracking link. IEM does not set an end date for Transitional or decide whether it is appropriate for a list.
If you use Minimal, an explicit tracking refusal stops future last-open updates and removes the stored date. Minimal does not ask IEM to verify why the email was sent or whether its use of the date matches the circumstances discussed by the CNIL. Aggregate cannot enforce an individual withdrawal against an already delivered shared pixel, since that pixel does not identify the recipient. These are logical limits to account for when choosing a mode.
What to review in IEM
Start with Settings → Email settings → Email tracking defaults, then check user and list defaults and any campaign override. Review the notice and purpose wording that recipients will see, the legacy policy, the tracking preference link, and the retention window for stored events. Keep the daily tracking-retention task enabled when you use consent modes: it retries a withdrawal purge if the immediate deletion fails. The upgrade and deployment notes cover the settings and reporting changes in detail.
The CNIL’s recommendation and FAQ are the sources for the authority’s position. Please review it carefully and obtain your own legal advice.
Where to go next
- Read the 8.8.0 upgrade and deployment notes for the settings, tracking key, scheduled cleanup and reporting changes.
- Read Email tracking and the Italian Garante’s pixel guidance for the background to the Italian announcement.
