Spy pixels are evolving like malware, so HEY’s adapting

We knew that spy-pixel pushers might go down the rabbit hole of escalation once we gave HEY users the power to defend themselves. Just like virus and malware makers are constantly trying to defeat anti-virus and other security protections. But I guess we didn’t realize just how quickly it would happen!

Enter GMass, a plugin for Gmail that adds spy-pixel tracking, amongst a grab bag of other stuff. They hadn’t been on our original list of 50+ services we name’n’shame, but thanks to a new blog post where they brag about defeating protections that recipients might take to defend themselves, they came onto our radar.

This lead to an in-depth investigation into how their latest techniques work, and we spent the whole day coming up with a new process of detecting GMass’ spy pixels. It just shipped! And now HEY will name’n’shame GMass, just like we do the other fifty-odd pushers of this kind of surveillance.

Of course, like those virus and malware makers, GMass may try to defeat our protections again. And we’ll then have to adapt once more, and so we will. Internet security is a constantly moving target. But we can hope that Google will soon stop being a conduit for this kind of privacy abuse on the Gmail platform. Just like they don’t tolerate being used for spamming or phishing.

In the mean time, we’ll continue to do the work both on a general level to protect against all forms of privacy attacks against HEY users, but also specifically to identity bad actors, and to call out the users who employ their software for spying.

Have a surveillance-free Friday!