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Comment by progman32

3 years ago

As a user, I don't want to give this info. I'm glad the EU is giving folks an avenue to express this preference.

I provide free tutorials and articles like this. If you don't want to provide this info then I don't want to provide you free content.

  • That's the problem with GDPR. A lot of people are fine with this arrangement, but the GDPR is basically making it unlawful. GDPR is basically imposing the preferences of other people (e.g. progman32) on us.

    • The problem that regulation is trying to solve is that if "personal data" becomes an acceptable form of payment then people won't actually have a choice and companies can force people to provide data by not offering any alternative payment methods.

      The GDPR effectively outlaws using personal data as payment which IMO is a good thing because unlike money, personal data is not a one-off transaction (the data can be valid long-term) and can be misused in all kinds of ways we might not even know about yet, thus the risk is too high.

      This doesn't necessarily mean advertising is banned - targeted advertising is generally beneficial to the user (if you're going to see ads, you're better seeing something you're interested about) so they could offer the user a way to set their ad preferences manually (and thus sharing personal data freely with no coercion).

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  • Then it's not really free content is it? Put your content behind a "paywall" where the payment is whatever information you're (illegally) collecting from GA and see how it goes; at least then the "payment" you're expecting from it will be clear and users can make their own decision.