Quick answer: not in CondoAide. The images in an email the syndicate receives are fetched once, on delivery, and stored with the message. When the board of directors opens it, nothing goes back to the sender: they cannot tell whether or when the email was read. And the images still display exactly as the sender designed them.
A supplier invoice with its logo, the municipality's newsletter, a notice from an insurer: most emails a condo syndicate receives contain images. Many of those images are not inside the email itself. They stay on the sender's server, and the email program fetches them when you open the message. That mechanism is what lets the sender know you read it.
This article explains what a tracking pixel is, what it reveals, and how the syndicate's mail now displays in CondoAide.
What is an email tracking pixel?
A tracking pixel is an invisible image, often a single pixel, placed in an email to find out when it is opened. It is also called a web beacon. Newsletter and marketing email tools add them routinely, because that is how they compute an "open rate".
The principle is simple. The image's address is often unique to each recipient. When your email program downloads it, the sender's server logs the request: this recipient just opened this email.
Logos and banners work the same way. Any image loaded from the sender's server at the moment of reading can be used to measure opens, whether it is visible or not.
What does the sender see when the board opens their email?
When images load from the sender's server at the moment of reading, the sender can learn:
- that the email was opened, and when, and how many times;
- the IP address of the person who opened it, which often reveals the approximate city or the Internet provider;
- the type of device and software used, for example a phone or a computer.
For a syndicate, that matters. A supplier in a dispute can learn that the board read their formal notice, and at what time. An unknown sender can confirm that the syndicate's address is read by a real person. And a director who checks the mail from home gives away, without knowing it, a clue about where they are.
How CondoAide shows images without alerting the sender
CondoAide fetches the images once, when the email arrives, and stores them with the message. Every email received is handled the same way, whether anyone opens it or not.
In practice:
- On delivery, CondoAide's server downloads the email's external images, tracking pixels included.
- The copy is stored with the message, in the syndicate's private storage. It is kept as long as the email and deleted with it.
- When a director opens the email, the images come from CondoAide. Their browser never contacts the sender's server.
The result is visible right away: the email looks the way its sender designed it, with its logo, banners and layout. There is nothing to configure, no "show images" button, no warning to read.
Routing images through an intermediate server is not a new idea: Gmail has done so since 2013, and Apple Mail offers an option that downloads remote content in the background. The difference is timing: CondoAide fetches the images once, when the email arrives, not when someone opens it.
What changes for the board
Before, CondoAide already protected the board, but at the cost of the display: images hosted by the sender were replaced by a grey box with the notice "external images hidden to protect your privacy". An invoice arrived without its logo, a newsletter without its visuals.
| What is at stake | Before | Now |
|---|---|---|
| Logos and banners | Replaced by a grey box | Shown as designed |
| Sender knows whether the email was read | No | No |
| Sender sees the director's IP address | No | No |
| Setting to change | None | None |
The sender learns only one thing: that the email was delivered. Because their tracking pixel is downloaded on delivery, like every other image, they receive a single request, from a CondoAide server, at the time of delivery. They cannot infer that a director opened it, nor when, nor from where. And the pixel itself is never displayed.
Internally, nothing changes for accountability: each time a director views a message, CondoAide still logs it for the board. It is the sender, not the syndicate, who no longer knows anything about the reading.
What the protection does not cover
Protected display settles the question of images. It does not make the board invisible.
- A click on a link can still be counted. Many marketing emails route their links through a service that records clicks. If a director clicks, the sender may know.
- A reply obviously tells the sender the email was read.
- Delivery is still known. The sender knows the message reached a working address, as with any delivered email.
Some images cannot be retrieved: the sender's site is down, the image is too large, or it is not in a common image format. Those stay replaced by a discreet labelled box, and the rest of the email displays normally.
What about security?
CondoAide keeps only images, and only in common formats: PNG, JPEG, GIF and WebP. A maximum size applies to each image, and the server refuses to fetch anything from an internal address on its own network. A file that is not an image in one of those formats is not kept.
Frequently asked questions
Can the sender tell whether the board read their email?
Not through the images. In CondoAide, images, tracking pixels included, are downloaded once on delivery, for every email. The sender learns that the email was delivered, not that it was opened. A click on a tracked link or a reply can still tell them the email was read.
Do we need to turn anything on to see images?
No. There is no "show images" button, no setting and no warning. Emails the syndicate receives show their logos and banners as soon as a director opens them. Only images that cannot be retrieved stay replaced by a discreet box.
Where are email images stored?
With the email, in the syndicate's private storage in CondoAide. They are kept as long as the message and deleted along with it. When a director opens the email, the images come from CondoAide, never from the sender's server.
Does Law 25 require the syndicate to block tracking pixels?
No provision expressly requires the syndicate to block images in the emails it receives. The tracking is the sender's doing. It is the business collecting information with a technology that can identify, locate or profile a person that must inform that person beforehand (s. 8.1 of the private-sector privacy Act). Protected display is a discretion measure for the board, not a legal obligation and not a certificate of compliance.
Further reading
- Why a condo syndicate needs its own email address: what the law says at handover, and what the CondoAide address does.
- Law 25 for condo syndicates: the person in charge, the governance policy, incidents.
- Received emails now show their images: the release note for this change.
- An email address in the syndicate's name: the release note for the syndicate's mailbox.
This article provides general information current as of November 7, 2026. It is not legal advice. For a situation that commits your co-ownership, consult a lawyer or a notary.