I'm trying to make my personal blog GDPR-compliant. I use a free MailChimp account to send emails when I post a new article. Seems to me that MailChimp's tracking of email opens and clicks, which are clearly associated with personally-identifying email addresses, is not GDPR-compliant. Obviously, MailChimp is not alone in offering this functionality. And yet, I don't get the sense that anyone is turning off email tracking or, alternatively, requesting my permission to track my interaction with their emails.
Why don't you put a privacy policy explaining this in your blog? As long as you ensure 'lawfulness, fairness and transparency', you can easily be "GDPR-compliant". Keep a record of your processing activities (e.g. MailChimp is data processor and your are the data controller) and a quick note about the risk associated.
I asked the following question of MailerLite and received the following answer...<p>Q: "Does Mailerlite allow me to disable open tracking and click tracking for the purposes of GDPR compliance?"<p>A: "Email tracking is not forbidden by GDRP. We just recommend to update the privacy policy that clicks and opens are tracked in the newsletter they get."
This website might be useful: <a href="https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/blogs/gdpr-questions-answered-blog/" rel="nofollow">https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/blogs/gdpr-questions-a...</a>
GDPR implementation is a nightmare for small startups.... so to avoid case-by-case consent options you make your newsletter adapt to the reading behavior of the user. If this becomes a key feature of the service it would seem that this data becomes necessary for the service and you could force consent without make it one of many optional features that a user opts in to.
It looks like you can uncheck the tracking box if you get a paid account, which I suppose means that your GDPR compliance will be $10 a month: <a href="https://kb.mailchimp.com/reports/enable-and-view-click-tracking" rel="nofollow">https://kb.mailchimp.com/reports/enable-and-view-click-track...</a>