location when the message is openedwhen used legitimately email trackers help businesses determine what types of marketing messages to send to you and how frequently to communicate with you this emailed newsletter has some trackers as well to help us gain insight into the topics you like to read about among other metricsbut from a privacy perspective email tracking may feel unfair you didnt opt in to being tracked and theres no simple way to opt outfortunately many email trackers can be thwarted by disabling images from automatically loading in gmail messages heres how to do thatinside gmailcom look in the upper right corner for the icon of a gear click on it and choose the settings optionin the settings window scroll down to images select ask before displaying external imageswith this setting enabled you can prevent tracking software from loading automatically if you choose you can agree to load the images this wont stop all email tracking but its better than nothingbonus tech tip some readers asked for more help setting up notifications that can alert you to fraudulent credit card charges signing up for these is not easy because lets face it financial websites are not the simplest to useon the apps and websites for the credit cards i have i found these alerts in menus labeled profile and settings or help support look for alerts or dig into the privacy and security options sign up for an email or app notification each time your card is used to make a purchase online and over the phonemost of the time those purchases are from you but you want to know right away in the hopefully rare times when theyre notbefore we go behind the prochina twitter campaign an analysis by my new york times colleagues found a new and decidedly prochina presence on twitter made up of a network of accounts exhibiting seemingly coordinated behavior the findings add to evidence suggesting that twitter is being manipulated to amplify the chinese governments messaging about the coronavirus and other topicsrestaurants really arent fans of those apps nathaniel popper a times tech reporter explains why restaurants are increasingly unhappy about the high fees and other aspects of food delivery services like grubhub and postmates ill have a conversation with nathaniel about this in wednesdays newsletterthe downsides of every gathering of humans the neighborhood social network nextdoor has been both a place for people to help one another during the pandemic and a way for neighbors to lash out at one another over perceived slights or fan fears about crime the verge writes about the challenges faced by the volunteers on nextdoor who are moderating discussions about race and the recent protestshugs to thisnprs pop culture happy hour recently introduced to me the whimsical mini childrens stories that the writer anne louise avery composes on twitterwe want to hear from you tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else youd like us to explore you can reach us