Your newsletters probably track when your fans open them. In the EU, this generally requires their consent. Shotgun helps you collec and manage this consent and lets fans manage their preferencesat any time. Here's what changes, and what you need to check depending on the tool you use to send your newsletters.

💡 This article explains how Shotgun handles these rules. It isn't legal advice: if you have a doubt about your own situation, check with your legal advisor.

In this article

• Understand email tracking pixels
• How Shotgun collects your fans' consent
• What you need to do
• Go further

Understand email tracking pixels

What is a tracking pixel?

A tracking pixel is a tiny, invisible image added to an email. When your fan opens the email, their mail app loads that image from a server. This reveals that the email was opened, when it was opened, and sometimes which device was used.

Most email tools add a tracking pixel automatically: it's what calculates your open rates. Because the pixel reads information from your fan's device, it is subject to the same EU privacy rules as website cookies.

What the new rules require

On 14 April 2026, the CNIL (the French data protection authority) published a recommendation on tracking pixels in emails. Shotgun applies it to all organizers based in the EU. In practice, it means:

• Consent first: you can only track email opens for fans who agreed to it.
• Easy withdrawal: every email must include a link that lets fans turn tracking off, without logging in.
• Immediate effect: once a fan turns tracking off, their opens must no longer be tracked.

💡 Shotgun currently applies these changes to EU-based organizers. If your organization is based outside the EU, these requirements generally won't affect you, although exceptions may apply depending on your activities. Transactional emails sent, such as invitations, aren't affected either.

How Shotgun collects your fans' consent

New Shotgun subscribers

When a fan in the EU subscribes to your newsletter on Shotgun, they also agree to tracking pixels in the same step. Every subscription screen now clearly states that your emails use tracking pixels to see when they're opened and to personalize what you send.

You don't need to do anything: Shotgun records this consent automatically, for each fan and each organizer.

Existing Shotgun subscribers

Fans who subscribed to your newsletter before this change keep their subscription. Their tracking preferences are managed separately and can be updated at any time.

💡 You don't need to send a separate notification about tracking pixels to fans who subscribed to your newsletter through Shotgun: we provide this information directly through our platform. If you've collected contacts elsewhere, for example on your own website, you're responsible for informing them and ensuring that any required consent is obtained.

How fans turn tracking off

Fans can turn tracking off for any organizer from the Tracking pixels preferences page. They reach it in one click from the link in the footer of every email, or from their Email subscriptions page > Manage tracking pixels.

Turning tracking off doesn't unsubscribe them: they keep receiving your newsletter, just without tracking pixels.

👉 More info on how fans manage pixels preferences

What you need to do

Find your situation

What you need to do depends on the tool you use to send your newsletters.

⚠️ Whatever tool you use outside Shotgun, you also need a withdrawal link in every email. See Add a withdrawal link to every email below.

Newsletters sent from Shotgun

Good news: you have nothing to do. Shotgun automatically makes sure no tracking pixel reaches fans who turned tracking off, and adds the withdrawal link to the footer of every newsletter.

⚠️ Don't add your own tracking pixels or tracking code to the content of newsletters sent from the Smartboard. Shotgun can't control them, which is why our Terms don't allow it.

Brevo

Brevo lets you turn tracking on or off contact by contact. Once you activate this option on Brevo, Shotgun keeps each contact's choice up to date in Brevo for you.

Step 1: In Brevo, click your account drop-down and go to Settings > Contacts > Per-contact pixel tracking consent

Step 2: Select Yes

Step 3: Set Track contacts whose consent is unknown to No, then click Save

💡 This setting only applies to contacts whose choice Brevo doesn't know, for example contacts you collected outside Shotgun. For fans who subscribed on Shotgun, we automatically sync their tracking preferences with Brevo: Yes if tracking is enabled, and No if they turned it off.

Step 4: Add Brevo's revoke pixel tracking consent link to the footer of your emails, as explained in Brevo's guide below

🎉 That's it: Shotgun automatically updates each contact's tracking consent in Brevo whenever a fan changes their choice on Shotgun.

⚠️ Until you activate this option, Brevo keeps tracking all your contacts. Make sure it's on before your next campaign.

💡 The sync only works one way, from Shotgun to Brevo. If a fan turns tracking off through Brevo's link, their choice is saved in Brevo but not on Shotgun. Brevo therefore always has the most up-to-date choices: use it as your reference.

👉 More info in Brevo's guide to tracking pixels and the CNIL recommendation

Mailchimp, Laylo and Audience Republic

⚠️ As of October 2026, these tools can't turn tracking on or off contact by contact. To respect your fans' choices, you must turn off open tracking for all your newsletters.

You'll find this option in your tool's campaign or account settings. Your newsletters will still be delivered as usual: you'll just no longer see open rates.

Tools connected through the Shotgun API

If your email tool fetches your contacts automatically through the Shotgun API, it can also get each fan's tracking choice. Shotgun shares it in the Tickets API, in the contact_pixel_tracking_optin field (True or False).

For this to work, two conditions must be met:

• Your tool uses this field to turn tracking off for each fan who said no. If it can't, turn off open tracking for all your newsletters.
• Your tool refreshes all your contacts before each send. Fans can change their choice at any time, so the value your tool fetched when it first got the contact may already be out of date.

⚠️ To our knowledge, no email tool refreshes all its contacts before each send today. Unless your provider confirms it does, export a CSV of your contacts before each campaign and ensure your email tool applies their latest newsletter subscription and tracking preferences (see the next section).

Tools fed by a CSV export

Your contacts' CSV export now includes each fan's tracking choice, so you can respect it in any email tool.

Step 1: Go to Marketing > Contacts or Marketing > Segments and export your contacts

Step 2: Before the download starts, check the three boxes confirming that you'll respect your contacts' choices. The Download CSV button activates once all three are checked.

Step 3: In the file, use these two columns:

• Subscribed to newsletter: only send marketing emails to contacts marked Yes.
• Consented to pixel tracking: turn tracking off for contacts marked No, or for your whole audience.

Step 4: Import the file into your email tool. and make sure it applies the latest subscription and tracking preferences. If your tool cannot disable tracking for individual contacts, turn off open tracking for the entire campaign.

⚠️ Fans can change their choice at any time, so a file exported last week may already be out of date. Re-export your contacts before each campaign.

Add a withdrawal link to every email

If you use Brevo, follow Step 4 of the Brevo section above. If you send your newsletters from any other tool than the Smartboard, every email must include a link that lets fans turn tracking off. You have two options:

• Use the Shotgun link (recommended): add [PIXEL_CONSENT_PAGE_URL] to the footer of your emails. Fans' choices are saved directly in Shotgun, and made available through the API or your next CSV export.
• Use your tool's own link: if your tool offers one, you can use it instead. Keep in mind that choices made there aren't shared with Shotgun. It's then up to you to combine both lists before each send, so that a fan who turned tracking off in either place is never tracked.

Go further

Why your open rates may drop

Emails sent to fans who turned tracking off can't be counted as opened, even when your fans read them. Your open rates may therefore drop slightly, without your newsletters performing any worse. Keep this in mind when you compare campaigns sent before and after this change.