Subscribers can optionally provide permission for their email opens and clicks to be tracked. That permission can be set to:
A subscriber's permission to track is tied to their email address, meaning it's the same for all subscriber lists they are onwithin the same client. If a subscriber changes their permission for one subscriber list, it will be updated for all lists they are onwithin the same client.
"Unknown" responses
A subscriber will have a permission to track response of "Unknown" if:
- Your subscribe formdidn't include a permission to track checkboxwhen they signed up.
- You didn't include a permission to track response for them when youimportedoraddedthem to a subscriber list.
A subscriber with an "Unknown" permission to track response will be tracked until their setting is explicitly set to "No".
"No" responses
If someone subscribes to your list, but does not give their permission to be tracked:
- Their opens will not be recorded or shown in reports, but they will still be included in the total number of subscribers sent to. As a result, youropen ratesmay actually be higher than reported.
- Their clicks will not be recorded or shown in reports.
- They will not be included insegmentsorjourney conditionsthat rely on tracked campaign activity or journey activity. Please note that our systems cannot differentiate between an absence of tracking data and no subscriber activity and this can impact inclusion in certain segments or journey conditions.
- Their opens and clicks will not be taken into account forengagement segments. Depending on when they set their permission to "no", this means their engagement may eventually be classified as Unengaged, or lower.
If a subscriber has an "Unknown" or "Yes" permission to track response, and later sets their permission to "No", they will not be tracked from that point in time. However, previous reporting and geolocation data will remain.
Set and view permission to track responses
Permission to track is provided by your subscribers, if you choose to give them that option. It can be enabled on:
View permission responses
To see a subscriber's current permission to track response, you can:
- Export a subscriber listthey are on, and include the permission to track responses.
- View theirsubscriber profile, and check the permission to track response.
Clashing permission responses
If you change an email address on asubscriber's profile, and it matches an address on one or more of your other subscriber lists, the permission to track responses may clash. For example, the profile you change might be set to "Yes", while another profile with the same email address might already be set to "No".
What permission response is chosen for that email address, across all lists, depends on the response in each profile. If the subscriber you changed has their permission set to:
- No? The permission will be set to "No" for that email address across all lists.
- Yes? The permission will only be set to "Yes" for that email address if it is not already set to "No" on your other lists. If it is set to "No" on your other lists, the profile you changed will also be set to "No".
- Unknown? The existing permission for that email address across all your lists will be used, whether "Unknown", "Yes", or "No", overwriting the response for the subscriber you changed.