# Why open rates can't tell you if students read your email URL: https://varsio.co.uk/blog/email-open-rates-and-student-notices Updated: 2026-11-11 Blog # Why open rates can't tell you if students read your email Apple's Mail Privacy Protection loads tracking pixels whether or not anyone reads the email. What universities can measure instead, and how. By [Hasseeb Hussain](https://varsio.co.uk/authors/hasseeb-hussain) Published 11 November 2026 3 min read - Student communications - Student data Since Apple shipped Mail Privacy Protection with iOS 15 in September 2021, an email “open” has not reliably meant that someone opened the email. If any of your students read university email in Apple Mail with the setting on, your open rate counts emails nobody looked at, and you cannot tell how many. ## How open tracking works Most email tools record an open by putting a tiny remote image, often called a pixel, in each message. When a mail app loads that image from the sender’s server, the server logs the message as opened. ## What Apple changed Apple announced Mail Privacy Protection on 7 June 2021, saying it “stops senders from using invisible pixels to collect information about the user”. It reached iPhones with iOS 15 on 20 September 2021. With it switched on, Apple says Mail “downloads remote content in the background by default”, whether or not the person engages with the email, and Apple’s iPhone guide says it “prevents senders from seeing if you’ve opened the email message they sent you”. The pixel loads either way, so the sender’s tool logs an open either way. The same guide says the protection “does not extend to links or email attachments”. A click on a link in the email still tells you that someone acted on it. ## What universities can still measure - **Clicks, not opens.** Put the action in a link (book, confirm, read the full notice) and count the clicks. - **Replies and completions.** A form submitted or a slot booked is a firmer signal than any open. - **Reads where you control the page.** A notice opened inside your own app or on your own intranet page is a read your systems saw, not a pixel a mail app fetched. - **Trends, not single numbers.** Even a weak measure says something when you compare the same kind of message over time. ## Report by group, not by student Who read what is personal data, and staff rarely need it student by student. Reporting by cohort answers the question that matters (did first-year psychology students see the room change?) without building a record of each student’s reading. Set a minimum group size so that small groups cannot be singled out. The ICO counts in-app messages as electronic mail for the marketing rules, and says messages sent “purely for administrative or customer service purposes”, often called service messages, are not direct marketing unless marketing material is added. A room change is a service message. A promotion for a paid event may not be. ## How Varsio reports reading In a Varsio pilot, notices arrive as notifications and stay in the app, and staff see how many students read each one within 24 hours, by year, course and hall. Names are never shown, and no group under 10 is reported. [What Varsio is](https://varsio.co.uk/answers/what-is-varsio) describes the rest. Email will stay the official channel for much of what a university sends. The point is to stop treating its open rate as proof of reading, and to measure reading where it can be seen. ## Sources 1. [Mail Privacy Protection](https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/data/en/mail-privacy-protection/), Apple. Read 11 November 2026. 2. [Use Mail Privacy Protection on iPhone](https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/use-mail-privacy-protection-iphf084865c7/ios), Apple. Read 11 November 2026. 3. [Apple advances its privacy leadership with iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS Monterey and watchOS 8](https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/06/apple-advances-its-privacy-leadership-with-ios-15-ipados-15-macos-monterey-and-watchos-8/), Apple Newsroom, 7 June 2021. Read 11 November 2026. 4. [iOS 15 is available today](https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/09/ios-15-is-available-today/), Apple Newsroom, 20 September 2021. Read 11 November 2026. 5. [Key concepts for direct marketing using electronic mail](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/direct-marketing-and-privacy-and-electronic-communications/guidance-on-direct-marketing-using-electronic-mail/key-concepts-for-direct-marketing-using-electronic-mail/), Information Commissioner's Office. Read 11 November 2026.