Depending on Google's caching strategy and deduping capabilities, I wonder if longer term any embedded IMG link will start to count towards your quota...
In order to maintain privacy it's been well discussed they would have to cache always and forever. So large images will definitely add up over time.
I also wonder, even if they have a persistent cache, you might still want to check the Last-Modified and Etag of the URI. I don't think many people embed dynamic images like this, and I'm not sure how most clients would handle it, but it's an interesting corner case.
Seems like a safer first step would have been turning on the Silk-like proxy and keeping image display logic the same. Then you have only benefits due to reduced Cookie, Referral, and IP masking, and could also look for corrupt images which are actually JavaScript and that sort of thing. This wouldn't have been a shot across the bow of the golden goose of open tracking, which imputes Google's true motives.
Saying that the proxy is enough to require everyone to opt-out of auto-images may be a bridge too far, especially when there are ways to register your domain so that inline-images ARE automatically displayed, which IMO is what they should be encouraging.
Another way at this would be to find a UI widget which helped users actually understand the possible tracking info they would be giving up to the sender.
Still further putting control in hands of the sender would be a data tag on the IMG which told Google they should cache, and in exchange would result in wider image viewership. Tracking opens, actions, and coverts is the most important metrics to providing feedback to improving copy, it's devious for a display ad company to fuck with this on shaky privacy grounds. I guess at least they do provide an opt-out, which will be used by ~0.1% of users...
In order to maintain privacy it's been well discussed they would have to cache always and forever. So large images will definitely add up over time.
I also wonder, even if they have a persistent cache, you might still want to check the Last-Modified and Etag of the URI. I don't think many people embed dynamic images like this, and I'm not sure how most clients would handle it, but it's an interesting corner case.
Seems like a safer first step would have been turning on the Silk-like proxy and keeping image display logic the same. Then you have only benefits due to reduced Cookie, Referral, and IP masking, and could also look for corrupt images which are actually JavaScript and that sort of thing. This wouldn't have been a shot across the bow of the golden goose of open tracking, which imputes Google's true motives.
Saying that the proxy is enough to require everyone to opt-out of auto-images may be a bridge too far, especially when there are ways to register your domain so that inline-images ARE automatically displayed, which IMO is what they should be encouraging.
Another way at this would be to find a UI widget which helped users actually understand the possible tracking info they would be giving up to the sender.
Still further putting control in hands of the sender would be a data tag on the IMG which told Google they should cache, and in exchange would result in wider image viewership. Tracking opens, actions, and coverts is the most important metrics to providing feedback to improving copy, it's devious for a display ad company to fuck with this on shaky privacy grounds. I guess at least they do provide an opt-out, which will be used by ~0.1% of users...