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Comment by iLoveOncall

3 years ago

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).

    • This assumes that businesses hold all the power and can dictate payment methods to consumers. That's not how it works in a market economy. If there is a demand for alternative payment methods, businesses ignoring it will get outcompeted by competitors who do satisfy that demand.

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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.