On April 14, 2026, the CNIL (France's data protection authority) published a binding recommendation on email tracking pixels. Except for a few exempted purposes, email tracking pixels require prior, explicit, and separate consent from your recipients. This recommendation only applies to marketing content sent to contacts based in France.
What this recommendation means for your email tracking
By default, Brevo embeds a tracking pixel in your emails to measure opens and record per-contact engagement data. Under the CNIL recommendation, collecting and storing that individual-level data requires explicit consent from each recipient, collected separately from consent to receive your emails.
This applies to all emails sent to contacts based in France, regardless of the sending channel you use (Email Campaigns, Automations, or Transactional email via SMTP or API).
What is subject to the consent requirement?
The following table lists a few tracking use cases that require explicit consent:
Use case |
Status under the CNIL recommendation |
|---|---|
| Send-time optimization at individual contact level | ❌ Requires explicit consent |
| Targeting non-openers from a previous campaign (commercial purpose) | ❌ Requires explicit consent |
| Engagement scoring feeding segmentation or personalization | ❌ Requires explicit consent |
| Win-back and reactivation campaigns targeting non-openers | ❌ Requires explicit consent, commercial purpose removes the deliverability exemption |
| Behaviorally triggered promotional emails (abandoned cart, price drop, browse abandonment) | ❌ Requires explicit consent, event-triggered does not mean transactional |
➡️ To learn more about what is subject to the consent requirement, check the full CNIL recommendation.
Set up per-contact tracking consent in Brevo
Per-contact tracking consent lets you continue collecting individual engagement data, such as opens, but only for contacts who have explicitly given permission.
| ✅ Allows you to... | ❌ Does not allow you to... |
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Once you activate per-contact tracking consent, Brevo automatically creates three default contact attributes to manage each contact's tracking consent:
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| Pixel Tracking Consent |
Whether the contact agreed to be tracked: Yes, No, or empty. Only contacts with Yes are tracked for opens, so you keep engagement data while respecting consent. |
| Pixel Tracking Consent Date | The date the contact accepted or refused pixel tracking. |
| Pixel Tracking Consent Source | The source through which the contact gave their answer, for example a sign-up form. |
Step 1: Activate per-contact tracking consent
- Go to Settings > Campaigns > Default settings > Tracking & reports.
- Under the Tracking section, select Yes under Per-contact pixel tracking consent to activate per-contact consent management for all your email channels.
- Configure your default behavior by setting Track contacts whose consent is unknown to either:
- Yes, contacts continue to be tracked while you progressively collect consent.
- No, contacts are not tracked until they explicitly consent.
- Click Save. All existing contacts are automatically set to unknown status.
Step 2: Add a pixel tracking consent checkbox to your forms
Add a pixel tracking consent checkbox to every form where you collect information from your French contacts, including your sign-up forms and your profile update form. This lets your contacts choose whether they agree to be tracked, whether they are joining your list for the first time or updating their preferences.
Your contacts' answer is saved to the _PIXEL_TRACKING_CONSENT attribute on their contact profile, so you can filter and segment your contacts based on their tracking consent.
- Open the form you want to edit, either your sign-up form, or profile update form.
- From the Build tab, drag and drop a Checkbox field into your form.
- In the Object type dropdown, select Contact.
- In the Attribute list dropdown, select the _PIXEL_TRACKING_CONSENT attribute.
- Next to the checkbox, enter a consent statement to ask for your subscribers' consent for pixel tracking. For example, "I agree to be tracked through email tracking pixels for personalized communications".
- In the left panel, add a label name and a help text so your subscribers clearly understand that you will use tracking pixels to send them personalized communications.
- Continue editing your form, then publish it.
➡️ To learn more about forms, check our dedicated articles Create or edit a sign-up form, or Create or edit a profile update form.
Step 3: Manage contacts added before you activated tracking consent
If you have French contacts who subscribed between April 14 and July 14, 2026, they may have been tracked before you had a way to collect their pixel tracking consent. Use one or both of the following options to bring these contacts up to date.
Add a pixel tracking consent checkbox to your profile update form
Ensure you added a pixel tracking consent checkbox to your profile update form so these contacts can share or change their consent at any time.
➡️ To learn more about how to add a pixel tracking consent checkbox to your update profile forms, check our dedicated article Create or edit a profile update form.
(Optional) Manually remove your contacts' consent until they actively opt in
You can also decide to treat these contacts as if they had not given consent, until they tell you otherwise through your profile update form:
- From the CRM > Contacts page, create a segment of contacts who meet all of the following conditions:
- Contact attributes > _PIXEL_TRACKING_CONSENT > Not filled
- Contact attributes > Creation date > Fixed period > 14/04/2026 - 14/07/2026
-
(Optional) The contact attribute that allows you to filter only French contacts
- (Optional) Click Save as segment if you want to keep track of those contacts.
- Click the checkbox on the left of the CONTACT column and click Select all contacts.
- Click More actions > Edit.
- In the Update the following attribute dropdown, select the PIXEL TRACKING CONSENT attribute.
- In the PIXEL TRACKING CONSENT dropdown, choose No.
- Click Update to confirm.
These contacts are considered as not tracked until they change their answer through your profile update form.
Step 4: Add an easy revoke consent link to your email footers
Give contacts ongoing control over their tracking consent by including a revoke consent link in your email footers. This lets recipients change their tracking pixel consent at any time, without friction. Once they click this link, your contact's pixel tracking consent attribute is automatically set to No.
Depending on your email editor, the procedure differs. Open the tab that matches your email editor:
- Drag and drop a Button content block into the email canvas.
- Click the button to open its settings in the left panel.
- In the Link settings section, choose from the Type of link dropdown the Revoke pixel tracking consent link.
- Replace Call to action with clear text that makes it obvious your recipients can decline the use of tracking pixels, such as "I prefer not to be tracked."
You need to manually add your revoke pixel tracking link placeholder:
-
HTML editor
Add the{{ revoke_open_pixel_tracking }}placeholder in an HTML hyperlink tag <a>:<a href="{{ revoke_open_pixel_tracking }}">Opt out of the use of tracking pixels</a> -
Simple editor
Click the Insert link icon, then paste the{{ revoke_open_pixel_tracking }}placeholder in the URL field, and enter the text you want to display in the Link title field.
Specific considerations for B2B communications
The CNIL recommendation makes clear that the consent requirement for tracking pixels is independent of the consent regime for sending the email.
A B2B prospecting email sent under professional exemptions is legally sendable without consent. However, inserting a tracking pixel into that email still requires separate, explicit tracking consent from the recipient.
For B2B cold outreach and prospecting sequences, use per-contact tracking consent to collect explicit tracking consent before deploying individual pixels. Deliverability exemptions apply in B2B under the same conditions as in B2C.
❓ FAQs
Expand the accordions below to find answers to common questions about the CNIL recommendation on tracking pixels.
Yes. The CNIL considers that loading a tracking pixel counts as an operation performed on the recipient's device. Prior consent is therefore required, unless the use falls under one of the defined exemptions, such as deliverability measurement.
It is not banned, but it is regulated. If you measure opens to optimize campaigns, personalize content, or adjust sending frequency, consent is required. An exemption exists only for deliverability measurement, meaning identifying inactive contacts to clean your list, and only for transactional emails or emails sent with consent, with minimal data retention.
The CNIL does not require you to retroactively collect consent for contacts you already had before this recommendation. However, you must clearly inform them about the use of tracking pixels and give them an easy way to opt out of future tracking, for example using the revoke consent link in your email footer.
➡️ If some of these contacts subscribed between April 14 and July 14, 2026, check Step 2: Manage contacts added before you activated tracking consent for additional steps.
No. The CNIL draws a clear distinction between the two. Consent to receive an email is separate from consent to pixel-based tracking. Unless the pixel's purpose falls under an exemption, separate and specific consent for tracking is required.
Yes, the recommendation applies to any tracking pixel regardless of the sending channel. However, transactional emails (order confirmations, shipping notifications, password resets, security alerts) benefit from the deliverability exemption, which only covers global, aggregate tracking, such as knowing whether an email was opened to measure deliverability or clean your list.
Individual-level tracking of transactional emails, for example linking opens to a specific contact for personalization or engagement scoring, is not covered by the exemption and requires the same explicit consent as any other email.
We are working on giving you more granular control over tracking consent for transactional emails specifically. We will share more details when this is available.
⏭️ What's next
- Create a sign-up form
- Update your contacts details and preferences (profile update form)
- GDPR-compliant sign-up form guidelines
- Optimize and clean your contact list
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