Open and link tracking problems with Microsoft defender

We are offering PDF downloads to our website visitors, they fill out a form, that triggers an automation, and the automation sends them an email with a link to the PDF.

That has worked fine for years, but now it seems that Microsoft Defender has been updated - so if the user is on a computer with Microsoft Defender, the PDF link gets flagged as dangerous, after a little research I found out that if I turn off the link tracking on the email, it is approved by Microsoft Defender.

Turning tracking off is a quick fix, but it removes options for reminder emails and other things in the automation.

Is ActiveCampaign aware of this problem?

Does anyone have experience with fixing this problem?

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We are having this issue as well with Microsoft business recipients and tracking links generated by ActiveCampaign. We opened support tickets yesterday morning, but have not heard back yet.

Thanks for your input - this is a huge problem for everyone, and you don’t see it unless you are on a Microsoft business platform with Defender…

I just escalated this to our product team. I’ll follow up shortly! In the meantime, have you opened a ticket so our team can look into your account more specifically? If so, please DM me the ticket number.

UPDATE: Engineers are investigating reports that tracked links are being incorrectly flagged as malicious by Office 365 Defender.

Deliverability specialists are online working to resolve the issue.

You can follow along here for the most recent updates: https://status.activecampaign.com/

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