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On the question “what about the developers who rely on ad revenue?”
On the question “what about free sites?”

The easy answer is that you can still present ads, monetize apps and web sites with ads, track attribution of ads. You just can’t monetize via covert user surveilance - either get user consent (you won’t) or use ad tech which doesn’t require it.
 
To play devil’s advocate here, if they are providing you an app at no financial cost to you, the tracking is how they get paid. Don’t like it? Don’t use the app.
For paid apps, block away. They already got paid.

If your are being tracked and they sell that data, or they serve you ads while you use the app, than you are paying for it. Paying doesn't mean giving currency issued by government. It means giving something up in exchange for something. This isn't a negotiable concept. It's the core definition of the term 'paid'.
 
If your are being tracked and they sell that data, or they serve you ads while you use the app, than you are paying for it. Paying doesn't mean giving currency issued by government. It means giving something up in exchange for something. This isn't a negotiable concept. It's the core definition of the term 'paid'.
Read what I said.
If they are providing you an app at “no financial cost from you”, this is how they get paid for their work.
There is no financial impact on you at all.
Nothing is free. There is always an exchange of something of value.
 
The legal rules are: They can ask for consent to cookie use, and the page where you would give consent must be clearly designed so that you can refuse consent _with one click_. And they are not allowed to restrict your usage of the site in any way due to lack of consent.
What I hate is the fact that I go through and turn off all the tracking then save it, yet it asks me the same thing every time I log on... It's like they do it on purpose to force us into accepting all their tracking crap!
I went on one site earlier, as soon as I turned off all the tracking stuff and click save the message would pop up again... So I decided it wasn't worth it and won't visit that site again!

Even YouTube seems to be messing around... I hadAdBlockers turned on, suddenly every time I tried to play a video I would get an unexpected error has occurred and couldn't watch it, but for some strange reason I wouldn't get the error if I turned the adblocker off!
 
I recently moved to UK, and I find that whole cookie warning for each website genuinely frustrating.
As a web developer myself, the tools (when executed poorly, which most of the time) are frustrating to use because they prey on you taking the easy route to suit their own interests. If we keep to the "spirit" of the GDPR, it really should be a lot easier and better for the visitor, not just in terms of UX, but in privacy across the Internet.

Yes the problem are with the tools used to get consent. They are at best…annoying when not misleading… But I actually found one that is top notch and seems to focus on UX : https://www.axeptio.eu/en/home
 
On the question “what about the developers who rely on ad revenue?” Simple: offer a no ads option and guarantee that all tracking is removed in that mode. Right now you pay to not see an ad but you still get tracked. You shouldn’t get to double dip.

You not getting it, people will still not pay. What part of that do you not get, people don't buy apps. Maybe 1 in 1000 will pay the dollar or two for no ads. You can't support your app with that.

And just so you know, once people figure out if they click to not track they see little to no ads they will always click that and never see ads and not need to buy an ad remove option.

It's not that had to figure this out. No Ads = No App!

A lot of apps people use will simply go away now.
 
This will be a feature that people will likely end up regretting being added. Because it will lead to a lot of apps going away or having to charge a ton of money to make up for lost revenue from ads.

This is why I prefer the app I can pay for if it's something that I need or want to use. And I don't complain about subscriptions. If an app stops meeting my needs I stop using the app.
 
This is why I prefer the app I can pay for if it's something that I need or want to use. And I don't complain about subscriptions. If an app stops meeting my needs I stop using the app.

Paying for an app or subscription doesn't guarantee you're not being tracked. Over the past 6 months I've been paying more attention to the privacy policies of apps before downloading them and they're 1) clear as mud and 2) tracking you even if you pay 3)sharing data with 'affiliates' whoever they are.

As far as I can tell there are very very few apps that won't track you at all even for menial tasks like writing a reminders list...
 
This is why I prefer the app I can pay for if it's something that I need or want to use. And I don't complain about subscriptions. If an app stops meeting my needs I stop using the app.

You're in the extreme minority there. Maybe 1 in 1000 will buy an ad free version of an app at a dollar or two let alone subscribe to something. At lot of apps are going to simply die off later this year.
 
If it worked the way you wanted it to, ads would pay 5 cents. Thats the problem, when ad advertiser has a shot a getting an ad in front of someone it actually wants to they are willing to pay a ton more, something thats actually livable. Websites and apps can't exist on ads that pay 5 cents. Thank about that.

But it IS enough to break even, no problem with it.

If the tracking industry is wiped out: the generic adds will become MORE valuable overall and the UX will be better.
SO: wipe out the high paying tracking ads completely, please!
For the sake of all involved.
You can't have it both ways, you will either have ads with apps that do this or no app because we all know people don't pay for apps.
Most of the few apps I use actually are paid for, free ones: I avoid them if at all possible.
 
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What a bunch of BS from those advertisers, does anyone really have any sympathy towards their position? +1000 for Apple!!
 
I seem to recall it was Steve Jobs who said that with Apple the computer is the product being sold. With Google you are the product.
 
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Paying for an app or subscription doesn't guarantee you're not being tracked.

I realize tracking's the primary topic of this thread, but it wasn't the topic of my post. A fellow forum member lamented the fact that few people pay for apps. I said I do. That was the extent of my commentary.
 
The title of the article and its tag are highly misleading.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the EU. Several associations formed by private companies like Google that have criticized Apple might be from Europe, but they are not affiliated with the EU (which is a governmental organization).

I know this must be hard to distinguish for some US Americans, but Europe, and companies from Europe, are not the EU (and vice-versa). In this context it's important, because the link to the EU somehow implies that the criticism is coming from governments, which it isn't.

The linked Reuters article also says nothing about the EU, so I wonder where the Macrumors editors got that from.
 
I publish websites, ads pay little as I don't allow the likes of Google to track my visitors.
I know that first hand.
But it IS enough to break even, no problem with it.

If the tracking industry is wiped out: the generic adds will become MORE valuable overall and the UX will be better.
SO: wipe out the high paying tracking ads completely, please!
For the sake of all involved.

Apps are very different than websites. They cost much more money to make and often the operating cost is higher. I do both.

Ads in apps also pay much more than ads on websites. It's not uncommon to have a eCPM from interstitial ads well north of $20. Going to generic ads you would be lucky for that to be a $1. People can't operate them at that cost.
 
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