High importance: if you send marketing email to contacts in France or Italy and have automations based on an email link click, this is of high importance!
Opens and link clicks are no longer tracked for some of these contacts. Automations that start or move forward when a contact clicks a link in an email may not run for them. Review those automations now. See Frequently asked questions for options.
Applies to: Keap email broadcasts, automations and one-to-one email
Privacy regulators in France (CNIL) and Italy (Garante) now state that tracking email opens and clicks needs the recipient's consent, the same way website cookies do. If you send email to people in those countries, this article explains the rule, what Keap has already changed, what's coming next, and what is still your responsibility.
The short version
Permission to email someone is not the same as permission to track that email.
You, as the sender, are responsible for collecting and recording tracking consent for your contacts.
New as of October 28, 2026: Keap no longer tracks emails sent to addresses ending in
.it,.fror other French domains. This is a temporary safeguard.New as of October 28, 2026: your recipients can allow or stop tracking from the unsubscribe link in any email you've sent them.
Coming next: you'll be able to set each contact to Track or Don't Track, individually or in bulk.
What the rule states
Most marketing emails include a tiny, invisible image called a tracking pixel. When the email is opened, the image loads, and that is how an "open" gets recorded. Regulators now treat this pixel like a website cookie: it reads information from the recipient's device, so it falls under the EU ePrivacy rules.
Two regulators have published guidance on this. For dates, deadlines and the full rules, always refer to the official source:
France (CNIL): Recommendation on tracking pixels in email (French). English version (PDF).
Italy (Garante): Tracking pixels in email (Italian), including the official guidelines.
These are not brand-new laws. They are revisions of how existing EU privacy rules (ePrivacy and GDPR) apply to email. Other EU countries have not yet published matching guidance, but many email providers expect them to follow.
Four things that catch people off guard (related to sending to France and Italy)
Marketing consent doesn't cover tracking. Someone who signed up for your newsletter has not automatically agreed to have their opens tracked.
Transactional email isn't automatically exempt. Receipts and appointment reminders can still need tracking consent.
Silence is not consent. If a contact never answers your consent request, treat them as "no."
Opting out must be easy. Recipients need a simple way to withdraw tracking consent, separate from unsubscribing completely.
Both French and Italian privacy regulators recognize limited exceptions that may permit certain email tracking activities without recipient consent, particularly for technical operations involving email deliverability, security, and aggregated statistics. These exceptions are subject to specific requirements and do not automatically extend to individual recipient tracking or marketing analytics. Keap manages applicable network-level safeguards independently of customer-facing tracking features. Customers are responsible for evaluating their own tracking practices and determining applicable consent requirements in consultation with their legal or privacy advisors.
What changed on October 28, 2026
1. No tracking for Italian and French email domains
Keap now automatically turns off open and click tracking for emails sent to addresses that end in any of these Top-level-domains(TLD):
Top-level-domains(TLD) |
Country or territory |
|---|---|
|
Italy |
|
France |
|
French Guiana |
|
Guadeloupe |
|
Martinique |
|
Réunion |
|
Mayotte |
|
Saint Pierre and Miquelon |
|
New Caledonia |
|
French Polynesia |
|
Wallis and Futuna |
|
French Southern Territories |
Your emails still send normally. Only the tracking is removed.
This safeguard won't catch everyone. It looks only at the end of the email address, not where the person lives. For example, a customer in Paris who uses marie@gmail.com is still tracked. A contact in the US with a .fr address is not. You still need to identify and handle contacts in France and Italy who use other email providers.
We'll keep this safeguard on until you can manage tracking for your own contacts, one at a time and in bulk. After that, we'll review it and let you know before anything changes.
2. Your recipients can choose to allow or stop tracking
The unsubscribe link in your emails now lets recipients allow or stop open and click tracking, without unsubscribing. This works from any email you've already sent them, not only new ones. When a recipient makes a choice, Keap records it and applies it to future opens and clicks.
What your recipients see
When a recipient clicks the unsubscribe link, the page has a new Email tracking tab next to the usual options. The same tab also appears on the page where recipients update their information.
On this tab, the recipient:
Reads a short explanation of how tracking works: a small invisible image and unique links that show whether they opened the email and which links they clicked.
Chooses Yes, allow email tracking or No, don't track my email activity.
Clicks Save tracking preference.
The label in the corner shows their current choice. Not yet chosen means they haven't picked an option, which is the UNKNOWN status in Keap. The page also tells them that saying no won't unsubscribe them, and that they can change their choice at any time.
Who is responsible
Determining your organization's role and responsibilities under applicable privacy laws, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), is your responsibility. You have the relationship with your contacts, you know what your sign-up forms said, and you know where your list came from. Keap provides the email infrastructure and services used to send email on your behalf.
This means evaluating whether tracking is appropriate, determining applicable consent requirements, obtaining consent where required, and maintaining appropriate records are your responsibility. Keap's domain safeguard helps reduce risk while new tools are introduced, but it does not make these decisions for you or guarantee compliance.
Important: If you send tracked emails through Keap to contacts in France or Italy without their tracking consent, including contacts whose addresses aren't covered by the safeguard above, you are choosing to accept that compliance risk. Keap is not responsible for how you collect consent or for tracking decisions made in your account.
What's live and what's coming
Status |
Change |
|---|---|
LIVE NOW |
No tracking for |
LIVE NOW |
No tracking for |
LIVE NOW |
Recipients can allow or stop tracking from the unsubscribe link, including in emails sent before today. |
COMING NEXT |
You can change a single contact's tracking status. |
COMING NEXT |
You can change tracking status for many contacts at once with a bulk action. |
LATER |
We review whether to keep the domain safeguard, once you can control tracking yourself. We'll give notice before any change. |
Email tracking statuses
Each contact's email address has one of three tracking statuses.
Status |
What it means |
|---|---|
UNKNOWN |
The default. No choice has been recorded yet. Opens and clicks are tracked, unless the address ends in one of the domains listed above. |
TRACK |
The recipient allowed tracking. Opens and clicks are tracked. |
DON'T TRACK |
The recipient stopped tracking. Opens and clicks are not tracked. |
Today, a status changes when a recipient makes a choice from the unsubscribe link. Soon you'll be able to change it yourself, for one contact or many.
What Keap is doing, and not doing
| What we're doing | What we're not doing |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
What you can do today
Find contacts the safeguard misses. Search or filter your contacts by country to find people in France and Italy who use other email providers, like Gmail or Outlook. Tag them so they're easy to find.
Exclude them from tracked sends. When you build a broadcast or automation, exclude that tag until you've sorted out consent.
Review your sign-up forms. Add a clear, separate checkbox asking for permission to track email engagement, and mention tracking in your privacy policy.
Check where your list came from. For purchased, partner-provided or imported contacts, ask whether you can prove each person agreed to tracking. A contract with a partner isn't proof on its own.
Set statuses when the tools arrive. Mark contacts who consented as Track and everyone else in scope as Don't Track.
Rely less on opens. Opens were already unreliable because of privacy features like Apple Mail Privacy Protection. Clicks, replies, bookings and purchases are stronger signals.
This affects all email marketing platforms
This is not only affecting email sent from Keap, but all email marketing platforms. Work throughout the industry is ongoing, and different platforms may implement changes differently to meet the same outcome.
Frequently asked questions
Why did opens and clicks stop showing for some of my contacts?
If the contact's address ends in .it, .fr or another listed French domain, Keap no longer tracks those emails. The contact may also have stopped tracking from the unsubscribe link. Your emails are still delivered.
Does this apply if I'm not based in the EU?
It can. The rules follow where your recipients are, not where your business is. If you email people in France or Italy, the guidance may apply to those sends.
If a contact stops tracking, are they unsubscribed?
No. They keep receiving your email. Only open and click tracking stops.
Do automations that use opens or links still work?
Automations triggered by an open or link click won't fire for contacts who aren't tracked. Consider switching those triggers to form submissions, replies or purchases.
Can I turn off tracking for all of my contacts?
Contact Keap Support. We can review requests to turn off tracking for an entire account case by case.
Should I turn off tracking for everyone
Not necessarily. Turning off all tracking removes useful data and may not be required for contacts outside France and Italy. Review how you use tracking data with your legal advisor, then decide.
This article is for general information only and is not legal advice. Privacy rules depend on your business, your contacts and where they live. Please talk with your own legal counsel about your obligations, and refer to the official regulator sources linked above for current dates and requirements.
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