We will be releasing a new True Open filter & liveboard to the Analytics area of Act-On. True Open is Act-On’s AI-powered feature that identifies opens and clicks by security and privacy systems. You can exclude these opens and clicks from your email performance report, giving you a clearer view of your true email performance.
What’s Changing
We are adding True Open filtering & a new True Open Impact liveboard to the standard Email Performance liveboard in Analytics. The True Open filters will allow you to view your email metrics by filtering out clicks and opens made by security and privacy systems.
Understanding True Open
Email marketing platforms need to identify email engagement activity generated by bots, also known as non-human activity, which has a detrimental impact on reporting, automation, & other business processes.
Act-On's True Open uses AI to analyze behavioral patterns, offering a market-leading solution to this fundamental problem. True Open analyzes email activity (opens & clicks) & using machine learning, scores each open & click activity on its likelihood of being generated by a bot.
You can then exclude these opens & clicks from your email performance report, giving you a clearer view of your “true” email performance.
It’s important to understand that opens and clicks by security and privacy systems do not mean that a person isn’t receiving or ultimately engaging with the email. In fact, it confirms that the email was delivered to an active, functioning inbox.
However, from a marketer’s perspective, security and privacy systems inflate key email metrics and skew results. They may also reduce the accuracy of lead scoring and affect automated workflows.
It’s also important to keep in mind that email security and privacy systems are constantly evolving, and some open and click activity will always be difficult to categorize with certainty. While True Open is designed to adapt to these changes, it can’t guarantee 100% accuracy.
When
The week of July 14, 2025
Customer Impact
True Open Filter
The new True Open filter is at the top of the Email Performance Liveboard.
- Go to Reports > Email Performance and locate the True Open filter:
The filter has the following options:
| Category | Includes |
| Person | Opens & clicks by the email recipient (receiving person) |
| Security System | Opens & clicks by spam appliances & link checkers (aka “bots”). These systems are designed to protect recipients from threats like malware, phishing, and other security risks. |
| Privacy System | Opens by the Privacy System aka Proxy Opens. Proxy opens are the receiving mail server pre-loading all content for faster loading & creating privacy around a user's email behavior. Apple Mail Privacy Protection is the most common form of Privacy System opens. |
This filter affects the results shown in the Email Performance liveboard.
True Open Impact Liveboard
The True Open Impact liveboard is available in the Email Performance liveboard as a tab:
This liveboard shows side-by-side email engagement metrics for all data and True Open filtered data.
Metrics
Sent - Total number of emails sent in the time period and filters selected
Delivered - Total number of emails delivered in the time period and filters selected
Opens
Unique Opens (Person) vs Unique Opens (All)
Unique Open Rate (Person) vs Unique Open Rate (All)
Clicks
Unique Clicks (Person) vs Unique Clicks (All)
Unique Click Rate (Person) vs Unique Click Rate (All)
By Message
Top 20 Messages sent during the timeframe with charts for totals and percentages
All Metrics
This chart shows a breakdown of Unique/Total Opens and Unique/Total Clicks for Person, Privacy System, and Security System engagement.
Filters Effect
The filters on these liveboards will not affect the underlying engagement data. You can turn the filters on and off to view clicks made by people versus privacy/security systems. Your email click and open data will not be affected.