81–90 of 195 posts
Was GDPR so terrifying that they had to sell it off?
Deleted, was overly negative.
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Deleted, was overly negative.
They might just be missing basic features and blocking access was easier than adding those features. If the product isn't working out inside Pinterest then they don't have much motivation in fixing those issues, even if they lose users.
Instapaper is still not available to users in EU. It's been to months. I started to use Pocket because of this and now I don't think I'm coming back.
Same here. I could understand some downtime if GPDR was suddenly sprung on them but everyone had time to prepare. I could also understand them not caring about me as a single user (not deluded here), but since I pay for the service I'm sadly all fresh out of understanding. Instapaper has been great but Pocket doesn't seem to be lacking much as far as what I need.
Don’t wait anymore. They probably not coming ever again unless GDPR is voided.
Instapaper is still not available to users in EU. It's been to months. I started to use Pocket because of this and now I don't think I'm coming back.
Hey zulrah, we are working on GDPR and plan to have the service available in the EU as soon as possible. Hope to have you back on Instapaper when we become available in the EU again. Really sorry for the inconvenience.
At this point it's pretty concerning that you still have nothing to say publicly except "we're working on it", no detail, no schedule, no nothing.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same here. I could understand some downtime if GPDR was suddenly sprung on them but everyone had time to prepare. I could also understand them not caring about me as a single user (not deluded here), but since I pay for the service I'm sadly all fresh out of understanding. Instapaper has been great but Pocket doesn't seem to be lacking much as far as what I need.
Which part of GDPR is confusing to you? They did their research and turned out that in terms of profits the market is unstable if you want to open yourself up to potential GDPR litigations you are riskin more than its worth it. Don’t wait anymore. They probably not coming ever again unless GDPR is voided.
The thing is I don't want to be without such a service for a longer period of time so I'm sadly probably not coming back.
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Look at Brian's comment history: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=bthdonohue . He's not active on HN, but he jumps in for quick damage control and "clarification" when people have vaguely privacy-related or operational questions about Instapaper. When followup questions are posed, particularly more difficult ones, he never responds. So I find it very unlikely you're going to get an answer here, because this ac…
I read HN regularly, but I'm pretty much a lurker on all social channels. When there's a conversation relevant to me or the products I work on, I like to jump in to represent the relevant company or products. With respect to follow ups, I usually respond and move on to other things. I do my best to be open and transparent in online communities like these. Moving onto your privacy concerns there are two things I'd lik…
2. You've just said, "We have never monetized using user data, or developed any type of special targeted advertising for Instapaper." How is this statement congruent with paragraph 3 of "The Way We Use Information" in the Instapaper Privacy Policy [2]? Quoting:
- We may tell an advertiser or publisher that X number of people visited a certain area on our website
- We may tell an advertiser or publisher that X number of people bookmarked Z stories from a particular site or topic.
I'm going to be blunt with you, Brian: I don't believe what you're saying to me right now. At best I believe you're stating things which are superficially true but skating around the spirit of people's intent when they ask about privacy policies and how user data is being used.
Unless you have a fantastic answer for these two questions, I don't see how what you've just said is reconcilable with your privacy policy or terms of service. Literally "selling" user data is not the only way in which user data is monetized. Monetizing user data by providing derivative or curated analytics pertaining to that data is also substantial monetization of that user data. If advertisers developed their own special targeting for Instapaper users on or off the Instapaper platform based on the data you shared with them, then as a matter of fact yes, you did help in developing specialized targeting for advertisements.
To summarize thus far: you have effectively given me a non-answer, in consideration of the statements on Instapaper's TOS and Privacy Policy. And despite taking the time to respond to my comment (presumably because I challenged you directly), you have not responded to the parent commenter who originally asked you the question that started this thread.
EDIT: I'm not sure what's triggering these downvotes, but if someone downvoting has a substantial refutation or insight, it would be nice if you shared with the class instead of just pressing a button. As it stands Brian has not responded to the substance of my point, and it seems virtually self-evident according to the Privacy Policy that Instapaper monetizes user data. It's not much of a leap from there to assume that this revenue was no longer worth it for Pinterest after GDPR came into effect.
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> It's been passed around like a stepchild since birth Didn't Marco create it and run it independently for over 5 years?
He sold it around the time of the tumblr acquisition by Yahoo. Marco was the first employee of Tumblr and even though he didn’t work there at the time of the acquisition he made a few million off of the sale. I guess that gave him some runway to try new things. Besides, it seems like the team from Betaworks has been working on Instapaper since then.
I'm not sure how your reply relates to the statement I was replying to?
I looked it up on Marco's about page and he did run it for 5 years before selling it in 2013.
I guess I don't see how that's "being passed around... since birth."
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Same here. I could understand some downtime if GPDR was suddenly sprung on them but everyone had time to prepare. I could also understand them not caring about me as a single user (not deluded here), but since I pay for the service I'm sadly all fresh out of understanding. Instapaper has been great but Pocket doesn't seem to be lacking much as far as what I need.
Which part of GDPR is confusing to you? They did their research and turned out that in terms of profits the market is unstable if you want to open yourself up to potential GDPR litigations you are riskin more than its worth it. Don’t wait anymore. They probably not coming ever again unless GDPR is voided.
Instapaper is still not available to users in EU. It's been to months. I started to use Pocket because of this and now I don't think I'm coming back.
I don't mean to sound trite or dismissive, but the blame should be directed at EU legislators. If I create another software product I will explicitly and permanently make it unavailable to EU residents.
That’s more than enough time.
Instapaper is still not available to users in EU. It's been to months. I started to use Pocket because of this and now I don't think I'm coming back.
I don't mean to sound trite or dismissive, but the blame should be directed at EU legislators. If I create another software product I will explicitly and permanently make it unavailable to EU residents.