How to see if your emails are being tracked in Gmail before opening them

You might not realize it, but there are now email-tracking tools that make it easy for people to see when you open an email, what you click, and where you're located.

"Emails appear no different to your contacts, but you get data when, where, and how a contact interacts with your message," says a cheery video advertising Bananatag, an email-tracking service for Gmail designed for job seekers, advertisers, and those working in public relations.

In response, a handy new tool called Ugly Email shows you when your emails in Gmail are being tracked, and it starts working before you click anything.

When Ugly Email is installed, a tiny little eye symbol appears next to any email in an inbox that is being tracked by tools like Bananatag, Streak, or Yesware.

Here's what it looks like:

Installing Ugly Email is easy.

First you'll need to make sure you're using Google Chrome as your web browser, which you can download free here.

Next click this link to take you to Ugly Email on the Chrome Web Store, click the "Add to Chrome" button, and you're all set.

Any email arriving in your Gmail inbox will then be vetted for tracking tools, and the Ugly Email team promises that it is "actively working on adding more" email-tracking services to its list.

We first discovered Ugly Email over on Product Hunt, and if you're looking for a similar email-alert service that has been around for a while longer, you can always try out PixelBlock, which does the same thing.