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Instapaper is going independent

blog.instapaper.com

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Re: Instapaper is going independent

#121

Post by ipqk »

Chilinot wrote: post #91
howitworks wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If your product can't follow the GDPR legislation then I'm glad you don't allow EU residents to use it. Since you are most likely abusing the privacy of your customers. While I'm a bit annoyed at the amount of paperwork and side systems that need to be constructed to ensure proper handling of personal data that I have had to implement, I can only see GDPR as something positive for the people.

I removed all my apps from the EU, and I will no longer publish any future apps there unless they become wildly successful in another country first.

My apps are tiny, free, and just not worth the hassle of figuring out what GDPR compliance is (even though they are likely GDPR compliant already since I don't store any info).

I think we're going to see a lot of small indie developers just not publish to the EU until it makes financial sense (which might be never). And that's exactly what happened here: Instapaper is a two-person team and they didn't have the time or resources to ensure compliance, so they just kept letting it slide.

I suspect we'll see much more of this to come for the EU.

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#122

Post by bartread »

howitworks wrote: post #79
zulrah wrote: post #71

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.

This narrative has long since become tired.

If you don't respect your users' privacy you don't deserve to do business in the EU. And make no mistake: whether you like it or not, that legislation - or something very like it - is going to jump the Atlantic sooner or later, so why not position yourself ahead of the curve instead of stropping off and taking your ball home?

There are side-effects I don't like about GDPR, like the endless bombardment of overwrought cookie consents on every site I visit (definitely something that degrades the experience of the web), but I do like the fact that my privacy has to be respected by corporations.

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#123

Post by bartread »

coldtea wrote: post #105
bthdonohue wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't think you can piss on customers for 2 months and then drop a "sorry for the inconvenience". And for no good reason. Just assume the improbable cost of some litigation as a company, like tens of thousands of others (including much bigger and much smaller than yours) did, put up a message to European customers and have them click and proceed as usual to the service. Or, you know, use the headstart of more than…

I'm not sure why the above is getting downvoted. Sure, it's a bit salty, but if I were paying for instapaper (which I realise is cheap as chips, but the principle still stands) I don't think I'd be very impressed with being locked out for two months.

Genuine question: as an EU citizen, without the use of a VPN or proxy is it still possible to at least log on to the service to cancel your account?

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#124

Post by corobo »

kevingadd wrote: post #113
TillE wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that exactly what you said a couple months ago? 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.

Well, considering there are apparently only two people working on Instapaper, it's not hard to come up with reasons why it might take more than two months or why they might not be conducting a detailed PR campaign about it

Short of selling everyone's reading habits to the lowest bidder.. what on earth needs changing?

Edit: To clarify I'm not saying they do that, I just can't see what part of GDPR they're having trouble with

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#125

Post by corobo »

mtmail wrote: post #54
rjvbk wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it still blocked? It works here, but some geo DBs locate me in Russia because my ISP bought the IP address I use from there recently.

My home computer (in the center of Europe) is not blocked, but I see that as ip2country mapping issue (in my favor). That would explain the couple of "works for me" reports I've seen on Twitter. Still useless to me because I can't safe URLs at work or on mobile.

It also works for me at the office because the connection there has native IPv6

No luck at home with Virgin Media's "ehhh we'll look at IPv6 eventually"

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#126

Post by nine_k »

ipqk wrote: post #121
Chilinot wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your product can't follow the GDPR legislation then I'm glad you don't allow EU residents to use it. Since you are most likely abusing the privacy of your customers. While I'm a bit annoyed at the amount of paperwork and side systems that need to be constructed to ensure proper handling of personal data that I have had to implement, I can only see GDPR as something positive for the people.

I removed all my apps from the EU, and I will no longer publish any future apps there unless they become wildly successful in another country first. My apps are tiny, free, and just not worth the hassle of figuring out what GDPR compliance is (even though they are likely GDPR compliant already since I don't store any info). I think we're going to see a lot of small indie developers just not publish to the EU until it…

I don't see why the above is downvoted.

Yes, GDPR may be beneficial and all, but thinking that it does not have an associated cost of a higher barrier to entry is a bit myopic.

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#127

Post by corobo »

m-localhost wrote: post #39
corobo wrote: post #29

Excellent news! Not been able to use it since GDPR came into play, assumed it was down to slow large company -itis. Peeved by it the point I was planning out my own replacement product for Instapaper. Hopefully everything is back on track soon

Self-hosted Wallabag instance is great. I collect article there first, sync them to pocket as a backup. (Wallabag RSS->IFTTT->Pocket) https://wallabag.org/en

Does it send articles to Kindle?

I had a look around and in an attempt to pre-empt - no, I'm not jailbreaking my kindle

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#128

Post by nine_k »

ergothus wrote: post #93
mbesto wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

M&A guy here - despite what finance people will say, a majority of acquisitions do not end up realizing their planned strategy.

Good to know, but to this specific case, if someone (basically) says "This is not a spinoff to let it die, but to flourish on it's own", it's nice to have them explain why they are credible when they (or previous company rep) previously said "This is not a purchase to let it die, to but to flourish as part of the collective". Just give an actual reason why this time will be different. I already know not to trust M&A…

I think the word "acquihire" would explain a lot.

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#129

Post by m-localhost »

corobo wrote: post #127
m-localhost wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Self-hosted Wallabag instance is great. I collect article there first, sync them to pocket as a backup. (Wallabag RSS->IFTTT->Pocket) https://wallabag.org/en

Does it send articles to Kindle? I had a look around and in an attempt to pre-empt - no, I'm not jailbreaking my kindle

There are attempts with some serverside voodoo, but it doesn't look like it's possible.

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#130

Post by oh_sigh »

dasil003 wrote: post #88
joering2 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Oh please stop with this FUD already. Risk assessments on GDPR litigation are blown wildly out of proportion. If we approached the risk of all laws in all jurisdictions this way, we'd just wake up and commit seppuku every morning. The only services that actually need to shut down are ones that are monetizing based on personal data. Small SaaS services that aren't doing that can be fully GDPR compliant with a little b…

If what you are saying is true, why would a business choose to shut down their EU services until some later date?

Do they hate making money? Did they just want to make people panic about GDPR(after it had already been implemented)? Are their lawyers just really bad at their jobs?

Seriously. What is their motivations from your perspective?

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