Privacy Pass: Users and Publishers Can Benefit from Stronger Data Protection
Tracking-free browsing helps publishers to make more money — contentpass introduces Privacy Pass
We are thrilled to announce the launch of “Privacy Pass”. “Privacy Pass” offers internet users the option to consume digital media while protecting their privacy — without advertising banners and associated tracking.
Most free services on the internet are currently funded through advertising and the sharing of user data with third party advertising companies. Two EU regulations have the potential to fundamentally change this common practice: The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will take effect on May 25, 2018, as well as the ensuing ePrivacy Regulation, which the European Parliament voted in favor of on October 26, 2017. As of May 2018, website operators will no longer be allowed to process or share user data without the user’s explicit consent.
This need for consent required by GDPR puts the established data- and advertising-based funding models at risk. This is where “Privacy Pass” provides an alternative. We give readers of online media such as The Guardian, The New York Times, The Economist, etc. a real choice: They can either explicitly consent to sharing of their data, as they have implicitly done in the past — they “pay with their data” so to speak — or they pay a fair price for advertising- and tracking-free browsing with “Privacy Pass”.
We believe that the ePrivacy Regulation is a great opportunity for publishers and other providers of digital content: In addition to the well-established advertising-based funding, publishers can accept more direct contributions from their readers and are thus becoming less dependent on the Google/Facebook advertising-duopoly.
In addition to the protection of our users’ privacy, we believe that key factors are a great user experience and full cost control, because nobody wants to sign up with each news portal individually or to be confronted with horrendous bills at the end of the month.
We are planning to beta test our product with some publishers in the coming weeks to ensure general availability when GDPR takes effect in May 2018.
So stay tuned for updates around the “Privacy Pass”!
