Turn off link tracking in campaigns

[KittyS38]

I want to turn off the link tracking in my emails. Many of my subscribers can't open the linkds because their email provider sees them as a security risk--especially for Gmail addresses. If that's the case, this service is not useful for linking to events and information pages, which is why we are using it. How can I turn the tracking off?

[KittyS38]

For clarity, r20 links are used as intermediate URLs to accurately track what links are being clicked by your contacts so they can show correctly in your reporting. Other large email marketing providers use this same method with their own types of link tracking.

[BethS978]

We operate exclusively in the B2B sector and absolutely require the option to switch off link tracking. Our emails provably do not reach the clientele. If such a feature is not implemented very soon, we are going to have to switch to another provider and away from Constant Contact.

[Caitlin_M]

We're updating the status of this idea to more accurately reflect its current status with our engineering team and also made slight changes to the subject line in order for it to be more easily found. As of now, we have not made any changes to turn off link tracking in accounts. We can't guarantee a commitment to address this request but it should indicate some awareness that we have heard your feedback and could be taken under consideration for a future release.

[DanR01]

I want to upvote this as well. We have also had customers contact us convinced our email was a scam or we had been hacked. I'm sure there are many others who have not contacted us but just assumed it was a scam. Frankly I'm surprised more people don't complain. "r20.rs6.net" looks very suspicious.

In addition to an option to turn off link tracking, another idea, possibly easier to implement, is to simply use a less cryptic and suspicious domain for tracking! If the link was instead "r20.constantcontact.com" it would be much less suspicious. Many people know who constant contact is or could look up the domain easily for a sense of comfort that they're not being phished.

[JimO15]

Browser and Wi-Fi ad blocking software now blocks the Constant Contact URL link format. A contact reader cannot even see the link on a "click Here" button and if the redirect is blocked they have no information on the web link they need to see. I understand some folks want to count clicks but I am more interested in the reader getting to the intended information. Afterall, a click count is useless if the redirect to the intended webpage is incomplete.

I hope this can be fixed. Regards, Jim

[PFMA]

Various of our members are not able to open links in our emails because of this redirect issue. When it comes to deciding between losing members or changing email services the choice is obvious. Please implement this option.

[user83245]

May I know how to solve this problem? We also don't want our clients to see random link which seem like a virus to them, we want them to see our domain link when they tried to copy the links.

Thanks.

Regards,

Harry Lim

[Frankie_P]

Hi @user83245

At this time being able to turn off link tracking is not an available feature. If your contacts are however experiencing issues accessing your links because of link tracking we would recommend contacting the support team and if possible, having some information on hand to reduce the amount of time needed for troubleshooting:

• The security program and the version number
• If the recipient is on a home or work network, wifi or data
• Are the links you're inserting into the email beginning with HTTP or HTTPS?
• Have they safelisted our URLs?

[JimO15]

I think Constant Contact is missing a broader issue of its email service. If I send an email out to our contact list that has embedded  links to information in the email and the reader cannot access that information then the potential sale or capture of an interested party is lost. It could be advert blocking software, security scans or spam blocking among others that does not allow the link to be satisfied and a web page rendered. Even if I add the URL ink as the text of a link button, the reader cannot copy and paste the link because the copy of it is the r20 link and will still not work. It is impossible to analyze the specifics requested for every user contact. I myself have received Constant Contact emails from others with "Click Here for more Information" buttons in them and they are totally useless to me as the interested reader because the links will not render, nor can I find out what the real link URL address is.

Your preview test emails do not have the links encoded. Why not just let that version go through as the published email if I as the account owner does not want to count clicks? To me having an "option" that allows the intended information to get through to the reader is more important than knowing the number of clicks a particular email received.  After all, you still have the knowledge of how many contacts and who opened the email. 

The fact that other email providers do the same thing as Constant Contact is not a benefit. How about Constant Contact being better than the others by offering this option? You should really consider the importance of getting your users information through to its contacts.

Respectfully, Jim Osborn, account administrator

[ElizaS3]

Cx saying disabled tracking of the links in the emails. Still, his customers complain that their ad-blockers block the links, because they go thru CC.

[RussW10]

"Since link tracking is required by Compliance"

Whose "Compliance?" CC never used to mandate tracking links. This is a relatively new, onerous stipulation. I've written to several manufacturers complaining about not being able to click links and view email pictures. Usually, they don't realize this is happening. In several cases, they dropped CC once they figured out what was going on. In at least two cases, however, they just point the finger at CC and claim it's not their problem.

I've since stopped all communications with these companies and demanded any data that they've captured on me be completely and permanently forgotten.

VPNs exist for a reason. They're another layer of protection from hackers and data whores that are just looking to make money from what they can glean about me. VPNs aren't foolproof, but they're better than sending unencrypted packets over wireless networks. YOU HAVE NO INHERENT RIGHT TO COLLECT DATA ABOUT A PERSON THAT IS NOT A CLIENT OF YOURS. And when you force the issue, you just make things worse.