False/Suspicious email open tracking

[Bernardamus]

Hello!

I noticed that some contacts always display a mail open date that is exactly the same as the "last contacted" timestamp.  I understand that some humans might eventually read an email at the instant, but I tend to suspect that this "tracked opening" is not human, I wonder if it has to do with how some mail servers might work, somehow reading/processing the content before actually delivering the content to the recipient. 

Any tips and suggestion to help me understand if an open email is actually "really" open?  When I say "really" I mean "open by a human".

Thanks! 

Alessandro 

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @Bernardamus,

For sure, this is also a possibility. Some email service providers open emails to scan them for potential fraud and security risks. If the tracking pixel is loading during this check, HubSpot would not be able to distinguish human open from non-human open.

Best regards!

[JCameron36 · Accepted solution]

All of my clients are government and their firewalls are grossly inflating numbers.

I identified how to eliminate all firewall generated false information. The remaining have an interaction count to use for sale prioritization.

[Bernardamus]

Thanks Karsten, I use the Chrome extension (in principle it is not tracking self-opens...) , however I am not reading mails in the Sent folder, so I was wondering if it's possible that some "not human" opeining is ocurring on the other side, once the email is delivered to the destinatary, depending on the type of mailing system that they might have.  It does not happen with all the contacts, it's just some specific contacts that appear to be opening all emails instantaneously.  Let me know what you think! 

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @Bernardamus,

For sure, this is also a possibility. Some email service providers open emails to scan them for potential fraud and security risks. If the tracking pixel is loading during this check, HubSpot would not be able to distinguish human open from non-human open.

Best regards!

[CCahill50]

Seems like there should be an "immediate open" tick for these immediate and a "true open" number for likely human action say more than 20 secs later.  I would be fine eliminating the false positive immediate even.  

[Bernardamus]

If somebody at Hubspot is reading us, I would recommend to add a "score" to evaluate if the opening is "human" or likely to be "automated". For example comparing timestamps: if somebody opens the email at the very moment when the mail is sent, it's probably a robot (low score) , while if it's at least few seconds away (or better , minutes, hours away), then the opening statistic is much more realistic. 

Just my cent, and thanks for your help! 

[karstenkoehler]

Hi @Bernardamus,

Some email clients open tracked emails in the background and that may trigger an instant open notification from HubSpot Sales and also update that field.

Here's a tutorial on how to block those self-open notifications with the HubSpot Sales Outlook desktop add-in or Chrome extensio....

Best regards!