That has to be a GDPR violation, right?
No, the EU does not force entities to provide Internet services for free.
You have the choice. Pay with your data or your money. I hate it too but what can you do?
While no it cant force it for free and they are free to have an Ad based version the cookies could be considered a violation of the ePrivacy regulation:
Allow users to access your service even if they refuse to allow the use of certain cookies
Make it as easy for users to withdraw their consent as it was for them to give their consent in the first place.
Although the EU has been pretty lax in terms of enforcing a lot of these regulations
Privacy - it’s your choice
You know, just choose to afford privacy.
Let us track you to view this article.
or…
Pay us with a trackable payment method to view this article.
Catch-22 Surveillance Economy
I’d rather they put a webasm crypto miner on the page and say “mine for 10s to view this article” or something
Is it really so hard to buy a disposable visa or MasterCard? Can even pay bums to buy them for you.
its friction, a really really high amount of friction…
Not to mention many of the subscription sites (like newspapers) WILL NOT ACCEPT a prepaid card, or a virtual card - they flat refuse them. It has to be a card they can auto-bill forever. Not everyone does this, but enough do that its really rather bothersome friction.
Seems strange to refuse payments but Im sure there is some accounting person who’s figured it out.
This is why I use a script blocker to block the scripts from marketing domains. From what I have been able to see the cookies aren’t written because the code that writes it is not allowed to execute. It also stops script injections and other malware payloads that require extra-domain linkages to scripts.
Firefox + uBlock Origin + Privacy Badger, and happily click on yes to cookies and shit
As much as I like no script, last time I tried it. It broke like 75% of the websites.
I used to love the print Indy. It was a fantastic paper, and the Sunday edition was genuinely a great read in itself with brilliant contributors.
Ever since the print edition ceased (some may point to the launch of i as the turning point but I’m not entirely sure that’s fair) the entire operation has been turned into an ad farm masquerading as a news site.
It’s a cross between a tabloid and the Million Dollar Homepage nowadays, and what a shame that is. At least it keeps browser “close tab” UI devs in business mind.