Is it possible to validate email addresses based on open activity from other senders?

Summary

The overwhelming consensus from email marketing experts, documentation, and community discussions is that validating email addresses based on open activity from other senders is generally not possible, advisable, or ethical. This is primarily due to technical limitations, privacy concerns (including potential GDPR violations), and the intrusive nature of such tracking. While limited solutions like Experian's Email Insights co-op exist, they require contributing data and don't offer direct access to cross-sender activity. The recommended approach involves focusing on robust list hygiene practices, building a strong sender reputation, and ensuring transparency and compliance with privacy regulations.

Key findings

  • Impossibility/Infeasibility: It is generally impossible or infeasible to reliably track email open activity across different senders due to technical and practical limitations.
  • Privacy Violations: Tracking open activity across senders raises significant privacy concerns and may violate regulations like GDPR.
  • Ethical Concerns: Such tracking methods are often considered intrusive and unethical due to the lack of explicit consent.
  • Limited Solutions: Existing solutions (e.g., data co-ops) have limitations and require contributing data, not just accessing it.
  • Technical Barriers: Email clients and tracking mechanisms typically prevent cross-sender open tracking.

Key considerations

  • List Hygiene: Implement robust list hygiene practices, including double opt-in, regular cleaning, and removing inactive subscribers.
  • Sender Reputation: Focus on building and maintaining a strong sender reputation to improve deliverability.
  • Privacy Compliance: Ensure compliance with privacy regulations such as GDPR and be transparent with subscribers about data practices.
  • Ethical Practices: Adopt ethical email marketing practices that respect user privacy and consent.
  • Alternative Validation: Use ethical and compliant email validation methods that focus on syntax, domain, and deliverability rather than cross-sender tracking.

What email marketers say
11Marketer opinions

The consensus among email marketing experts is that validating email addresses based on open activity from other senders is generally not possible due to a combination of technical limitations, privacy concerns, and ethical considerations. While some solutions like Experian's 'Email Insights' co-op exist, they require contributing your own data and don't directly share email addresses. The emphasis is placed on employing standard list hygiene practices such as double opt-in, regular list cleaning, and focusing on sender reputation and engagement metrics.

Key opinions

  • Impossibility: It is practically impossible to reliably track email open activity across different senders due to technical restrictions and privacy safeguards.
  • Privacy Concerns: Attempting to track open activity across senders raises significant privacy concerns and may violate GDPR or other data protection regulations.
  • Ethical Issues: Such practices are often considered intrusive and unethical, as they involve tracking user behavior without explicit consent.
  • Limited Solutions: While some co-op databases exist (e.g., Experian's Email Insights), they require sharing your own data and do not provide access to external open activity.
  • Alternative Methods: Email validation services primarily focus on syntax checks, domain validation, and spam trap detection, rather than tracking open activity.

Key considerations

  • Focus on Hygiene: Prioritize list hygiene best practices such as double opt-in, regular list cleaning, and removing inactive subscribers.
  • Sender Reputation: Concentrate on building and maintaining a strong sender reputation to improve email deliverability.
  • Engagement Metrics: Focus on improving your own sending practices and engagement metrics (opens, clicks) to optimize email performance.
  • Privacy Compliance: Ensure that all email marketing practices comply with relevant privacy regulations (e.g., GDPR, CCPA).
  • Transparent Communication: Be transparent with subscribers about how their data is being collected and used.
Marketer view

Email marketer from EmailToolTester responds that knowing with certainty if someone is active on other senders' lists is impossible and that they promote focusing on your own sending practices and engagement metrics.

April 2023 - EmailToolTester
Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks explains that while technically possible through data sharing and fingerprinting, it's intrusive and goes against privacy safeguards.

February 2023 - Email Geeks
Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks shares that Experian has a 'co-op' called Email Insights where you add your list to the database and can get the most recent open, click, and frequency of clicks and opens. You can only get emails you put in, so its not directly sharing emails.

November 2021 - Email Geeks
Marketer view

Email marketer from Quora answers that it's almost impossible to validate email addresses based on open activity from other senders. They emphasize the importance of getting explicit consent and managing your own sender reputation.

May 2022 - Quora
Marketer view

Email marketer from Reddit answers that there are no reliable and ethical ways to validate email addresses based on open activity from other senders. They suggest focusing on list hygiene best practices like double opt-in and regular cleaning.

April 2022 - Reddit
Marketer view

Email marketer from MailerCheck answers that checking if an email is actively opening messages from other senders is not a typical email verification method. They focus on syntax checks, domain validation, and spam trap detection as reliable methods.

October 2021 - MailerCheck
Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks shares that what the client is asking for is impossible, as email receivers don't typically share statistics about their users for privacy reasons.

August 2023 - Email Geeks
Marketer view

Email marketer from Stack Overflow answers that it is practically impossible to track if an email address is actively opening messages from other senders. They state that this is due to a combination of technical limitations and privacy restrictions.

March 2021 - Stack Overflow
Marketer view

Email marketer from MarketingProfs answers that most email validation services concentrate on ensuring an email address is deliverable (i.e., the mailbox exists and accepts mail) and that services tracking email opening habits are scarce and might have privacy concerns.

January 2025 - MarketingProfs
Marketer view

Email marketer from Email on Acid explains that while they offer email analytics, it's limited to tracking activity related to the emails sent through their platform. They note that they can't see what users are doing with other senders' emails.

December 2022 - Email on Acid
Marketer view

Email marketer from Email Hippo Blog explains that validating emails based on open activity from other senders is generally not possible due to privacy concerns and the limitations of data sharing. They highlight the importance of ethical data handling and respecting user privacy.

June 2024 - Email Hippo Blog

What the experts say
1Expert opinion

According to an expert from Word to the Wise, validating email addresses based on open activity from other senders is generally not feasible or advisable due to significant privacy concerns and technical limitations in email tracking and data sharing.

Key opinions

  • Not Feasible: Validating email addresses based on cross-sender open activity is generally not feasible.
  • Privacy Concerns: The practice raises significant privacy concerns.
  • Technical Limitations: Technical limitations in email tracking and data sharing make it unlikely to be possible.

Key considerations

  • Alternative Validation: Focus on alternative email validation methods that respect privacy.
  • Ethical Practices: Prioritize ethical email marketing practices and respect user privacy.
Expert view

Expert from Word to the Wise answers that attempting to validate email addresses based on open activity across different senders is generally not feasible or advisable. She states that it raises significant privacy concerns and is unlikely to be technically possible due to the limitations of email tracking mechanisms and data sharing restrictions.

February 2023 - Word to the Wise

What the documentation says
3Technical articles

Documentation from IETF, Litmus, and GDPR collectively indicates that validating email addresses based on open activity from other senders is technically challenging, ethically questionable, and likely in violation of GDPR. Standard email tracking methods are limited to the sender's own emails, and cross-sender tracking is blocked for privacy reasons.

Key findings

  • Technically Challenging: Tracking open activity across different senders is technically challenging.
  • Ethically Questionable: Tracking without explicit consent raises ethical concerns.
  • GDPR Violation: Collecting and sharing such data likely violates GDPR.
  • Tracking Limitations: Standard tracking methods are limited to the sender's own emails.
  • Privacy Blocked: Cross-sender tracking is generally blocked by email clients for privacy.

Key considerations

  • Privacy Compliance: Ensure all email marketing practices comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
  • Alternative Validation: Focus on ethical and compliant email validation methods.
  • Transparency: Be transparent with subscribers about data collection and usage.
Technical article

Documentation from Litmus explains that standard email tracking methods, like pixel tracking, can only confirm opens for emails sent by the tracker's owner. Tracking across different senders is not a supported feature and is generally blocked by email clients for privacy reasons.

April 2024 - Litmus
Technical article

Documentation from ietf.org discusses the privacy considerations surrounding email communication. It answers that it is technically challenging and ethically questionable to track open activity across different senders without explicit consent, reinforcing the limitations of such validation methods.

July 2021 - ietf.org
Technical article

Documentation from GDPR explains that collecting and sharing data about email open activity across different senders would likely violate GDPR regulations due to the lack of consent and potential for privacy breaches.

June 2024 - gdpr-info.eu