Dynamic content automation with Apple Mail Privacy Protection

Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) was launched in September 2021 as part of Apple’s larger initiative to give users more control over their data. Users are now prompted to decide whether or not they would like to protect their email engagement activity and IP address when using the Apple Mail email client. 

How dynamic content automation works with MPP

For users opted into MPP, Apple automatically caches images upon opening; that’s what makes it so challenging to track accurate opens as email tracking pixels are image-based. (Not to mention, it can also cache images before they're opened by the user so we can see "zombie" hits for someone who never views an email. This also poses challenges when it comes to Content Automation/serving dynamic content as feeds may change even though an image has been previously cached. It could result in a subscriber being shown one image and being directed to another upon clicking through.

Our solution utilizes two MPP management parameters within your content automation tags. These are the subscriber ID (“kdcustomerid”) and mailing ID (“kdsendid”). Our system will cross reference the combination of these two parameters upon each open to determine whether to serve up dynamic content. This means that a subscriber who uses Apple MPP infrequently will still receive the experience of dynamic content whenever they aren’t using an MPP-impacted email client (e.g. Gmail). 

Our solution will also ensure that if a subscriber sees a cached image, they’re presented with that same image/experience when they click through; eliminating the need to create fallback content unless you’re using live email widgets (which are time-bound and/or location-bound) in your email as well. 

When to create fallback content

There are still some scenarios where you will need to create fallback content for MPP. Whenever you’re creating a tag that contains Live Email Content widgets (time or location-bound content), you should create fallback rules for MPP. Some examples include: 

• Countdown timers
• Timed images
• Weather-based rules
• Image optimizer
• Nearest store