Google finally adds image blocking to Gmail on the iPhone

Google today added a new setting to the iOS version of its Gmail app that will let you easily drive unwanted email tracking. The setting in question, the ability to prevent Gmail from automatically loading attached images, used on the web version of Gmail. Toggling that setting allows Gmail to block incoming images, including invisible email trackers hiding in the body of email messages that, in most cases, will tell you when and where you opened the message.

This is a pretty clear response to the controversial Superhuman that comes to a head when Twitter executive and designer Mike Davidson penned a blog post about the popular subscription email service that let its users track the location of a recipient and the time of day or she opened a message. After Davidson's post-viral blog, shedding light on an age-old and sadly pervasiveness form of privacy violation, Superhuman decided to turn over and retrieve the rental aspect of its service entirely. (Davidson still found the response lacking.)

Google has built protections against non-consensual tracking into Gmail, by disabling an email sender's ability to be able to locate a recipient via an IP address. (Google first routes incoming email messages through its own proxy servers, rendering any location tracking useless.) load an image.

But the image loading setting has been previously restricted to the web version of Gmail, and that it has been used by users of the iOS app. Now, at the very least, you'll be able to access this setting on your iPhone or iPad if you so choose.

Gmail accounts, but not for enterprise managed by G Suite. It's unclear if it's because it has a system administrator. We're reaching out to Google for further clarification.

Update September 3rd, 6:51 PM ET: Clarified that the setting is only available for personal Gmail accounts.