France Just Made Email Tracking Illegal Without Consent—And Your Inbox Is Full of It

In September 2025, France's data protection authority fined Google €325 million for displaying ads in Gmail without proper consent. That fine wasn't about the ads themselves. It was about tracking, specifically, about treating user consent as optional when it's legally required.

Now the same regulator has turned its attention to something even more pervasive: the invisible tracking pixels embedded in nearly every marketing email you receive. The CNIL's draft recommendations, expected to be finalized in early 2026, would require explicit consent before any company can track whether you opened their email. And the technical implications are significant.

What Tracking Pixels Actually Collect

A tracking pixel is a 1x1 transparent image embedded in an email's HTML. When your email client loads the image from a remote server, that server logs the request along with everything it can extract from it.

This typically includes:

• Your IP address, which reveals your approximate location
• Timestamp data showing exactly when you opened the email
• Device information from your user agent string
• Read frequency, tracking how many times you return to the same email
• Email client details identifying whether you use Gmail, Outlook, or Apple Mail

This data feeds into marketing automation platforms, CRM systems, and behavioral profiling databases. A single email open can trigger automated follow ups, adjust your lead score, or flag you as "engaged" for more aggressive targeting.

The Two Consent Problem

The CNIL's framework introduces what developers and compliance teams are calling the "double consent" requirement. Under the draft recommendations, organizations need two separate permissions:

1. Consent to receive emails under Article 13 of the ePrivacy Directive
2. Separate consent for tracking under Article 5.3, the same provision that governs cookies

This distinction matters because it invalidates the common practice of bundling tracking consent into newsletter signups. A checkbox that says "I agree to receive marketing emails" does not cover tracking pixel deployment. Each operation requires its own explicit opt in.

For developers building email systems, this means redesigning signup flows to separate these consent mechanisms. For compliance officers, it means auditing every email template to ensure tracking pixels are only activated for users who specifically consented to them.

The Retroactive Withdrawal Challenge

Perhaps the most technically demanding aspect of the CNIL's recommendations is the requirement for retroactive consent withdrawal. If a user revokes their tracking consent, organizations must stop pixel activation even on emails that were sent before the withdrawal.

This creates a significant infrastructure challenge. Traditional tracking pixels are static: once embedded in an email, they work the same way forever. The new rules effectively require dynamic tracking systems that can check consent status at the moment of pixel load, not just at the moment of send.

Solutions might include server side consent verification before serving pixel responses, or architecting email systems to reference consent databases in real time. Either approach requires substantial engineering investment.

Exceptions That Actually Make Sense

The CNIL's recommendations aren't absolute. Consent is not required for tracking pixels used for:

• User authentication: Pixels that verify email delivery for security purposes
• Security functions: Tracking that detects email forwarding or unauthorized access
• Anonymous aggregate statistics: Measuring overall open rates without individual identification

That last exception is crucial. Organizations can still measure campaign performance if they aggregate data into truly anonymous statistics. The catch is that the data must be anonymous at the collection point, not anonymized after the fact. And it only applies to emails that users requested or that relate to services they signed up for.

The €325 Million Warning Shot

Google's fine wasn't an isolated incident. The CNIL explicitly noted that Google had already been fined €100 million in 2020 and €150 million in 2021 for similar cookie related violations. The escalating penalties demonstrate that repeated non compliance results in increasingly severe consequences.

The investigation began with a complaint filed by NOYB (None Of Your Business) in August 2022. CNIL's inspections found that Gmail's advertising insertion affected approximately 53 million users in France, and invalid cookie consent affected more than 74 million accounts.

For organizations that track email opens, the message is clear: what Google paid €325 million for is functionally similar to what happens every time a tracking pixel fires without consent.

Timeline: What Happens Next

The CNIL's public consultation ran from June 12 to July 24, 2025. A revised draft incorporating stakeholder feedback is expected in early 2026. However, the regulator has emphasized that the underlying legal obligations have existed since GDPR took effect in 2018.

The CNIL has indicated it will likely show leniency during the initial enforcement period, issuing reminders before fines. But organizations effectively have until January 2026 to achieve compliance. After that, enforcement actions become significantly more likely.

Why Recipients Shouldn't Wait for Compliance

Regulatory frameworks move slowly. Even after the CNIL finalizes its recommendations, enforcement will take time, and companies outside France may argue the rules don't apply to them. Meanwhile, the tracking continues.

Gblock offers immediate protection by blocking tracking pixels at the browser level. Rather than hoping that every company in your inbox will implement compliant consent mechanisms, you can prevent the surveillance from occurring in the first place.

The extension works regardless of sender compliance, regulatory jurisdiction, or corporate goodwill. Every tracking pixel blocked is data that never reaches a marketing database, never feeds a behavioral profile, and never reveals your email habits to unknown third parties.

Regulations are catching up to what privacy tools have known for years: tracking without consent isn't just invasive, it's illegal. Protect your inbox today.