Tracking Consent Management

Tracking Consent lets publishers respect each recipient's preference for email open and click tracking. When enabled, tracking for an email depends on the user's TRACKING_OPTIN merge field.

How it works

The feature is controlled by a per-publisher setting.

• Disabled (default) — nothing changes; every email is tracked as usual.

• Enabled — tracking for each recipient is decided from their TRACKING_OPTIN value:

This behavior applies everywhere emails are sent: regular list campaigns, trigger emails, and the "view in browser" version.

Setup via the Dashboard

Enable the feature

Go to Dashboard → Site Settings in the top right corner:

And turn on Tracking Consent Management and click Save:

Enabling it automatically creates a system merge field named TRACKING_OPTIN (boolean) for the publisher. If it already exists, it is reused. Turning the feature off later does not delete the field or its stored values.

The TRACKING_OPTIN merge field

Under Setup → Merge Fields, the TRACKING_OPTIN field is shown separately from your own merge fields.

It is read-only and cannot be deleted or renamed — it is managed by the system. You also cannot create your own merge field with that name.

Configure the opt-in form checkbox

In the Opt-in wizard → Content step, a Tracking Consent Checkbox section appears (visible only while the feature is enabled).

It offers the same options as the existing User Consent checkbox:

When a reader submits the form, the checkbox state is saved to their TRACKING_OPTIN value automatically.

Managing a user's consent value via API

Besides the opt-in form, you can set or update TRACKING_OPTIN for users directly. These require the feature to be enabled (otherwise the merge field does not exist). Authenticate either as a user with access to the publisher, or with a valid ?api_key for that publisher.

Capture consent when a reader subscribes

The opt-in / subscription API accepts an optional trackingConsent flag; when provided, it stores the value for the subscribing user.

POST {HOST}/tracker/lucid/sub/{pubid}
{
  "email": "reader@example.com",
  "sqids": [1, 2, 3],
  "trackingConsent": false
}

Set the value for one or many users

Update the value for a batch of users in a single call (up to 16 users per request). Users can be referenced by email or id.

POST {HOST}/userdata/umfval/pub/{pubid}/set
[
  { "umf": "TRACKING_OPTIN", "user": "reader1@example.com", "value": false },
  { "umf": "TRACKING_OPTIN", "user": "reader2@example.com", "value": true }
]

Import values for a large audience (CSV)

To update many users at once, upload a CSV and import the TRACKING_OPTIN column against a user key (e.g. email).

POST {HOST}/userdata/umfval/import/pub/{pubid}/assid/{assid}
{
  "columns": { "email": 0, "TRACKING_OPTIN": 1 },
  "csv_settings": { }
}

{assid} is the id of the previously uploaded CSV asset.

Quick reference

Last updated: July 17, 2026