Introducing Pay or Consent on Mumsnet

[BeckyAMumsnet]

Hello everyone.

We wanted to give you a heads-up about a change in the way we deal with cookie consent. We are introducing a Pay or Consent model, giving you two different options to continue accessing the site:

1. Continue for free with cookies and ads: this is the option that most people have enabled already.
2. Subscribe to Mumsnet Premium: For those who prefer an ad-free experience with no cookies/tracking for ad purposes - Besides ad-free you’ll also get first access to our product tests plus all revenues from Premium are put towards our campaigning work

Why are we making this change?

The pay or consent model is becoming increasingly common across online platforms as publishers adapt to changes in advertising levels and data privacy regulations. Like many other publishers, we relied on advertising to generate income but changes in tracking regulation and the growing use of ad blockers have made this model less viable.

We know that Mumsnet is an essential space for many - a place to seek advice, find support, and connect with your fellow Mumsnetters. That’s why we’re committed to ensuring that the site remains free at the point of use for anyone who needs it but it’s not fair that those who install ad blockers or rejected cookies are piggy backing on the back of other users who haven’t.

At the same time as introducing this, we’re going to reduce the price of Mumsnet Premium to £2.99 a month because we want to be fair to those who’d rather not accept advertising cookies. This is less than the cost of a flat white a month from most decent coffee shops and we very much hope you think Mumsnet’s worth it! Nb anyone who’s signed up to Mumsnet Premium already at the previous price (£4.99 per month) will have their payments reduced within the next week or so.

We’ll be here to answer any questions you may have. Thank you, as always, for supporting Mumsnet.

I agree with the posters who are pointing out that rather than concentrating on monetising users data, you should be fixing the absolute disgrace that was the NightWatch debacle a couple of nights ago.

I never use websites that don’t have the capacity to choose or reject Cookies.

My personal data is not for sale by others who seek to make money from it.

Agree that if you sorted out the ads people wouldn’t be using Ad-Blockers.

It’s a bit rich that the users who ARE the website are being asked for payment anyway. If everyone stopped using MN, you wouldn’t have a business.

So it will be a goodbye from me.

I expect many others will be making the same decision. Some savvy MNer may also spot the serious potential now for a new website…..

I agree with the posters who are pointing out that rather than concentrating on monetising users data, you should be fixing the absolute disgrace that was the NightWatch debacle a couple of nights ago.

I never use websites that don’t have the capacity to choose or reject Cookies.

My personal data is not for sale by others who seek to make money from it.

Agree that if you sorted out the ads people wouldn’t be using Ad-Blockers.

It’s a bit rich that the users who ARE the website are being asked for payment anyway. If everyone stopped using MN, you wouldn’t have a business.

So it will be a goodbye from me.

I expect many others will be making the same decision. Some savvy MNer may also spot the serious potential now for a new website…..

Is the link to privacy settings at the bottom of this page not working for anyone else? All the other links in the same place seem to work…

It's not working in my ad and pop-up free Brave browser, but is in Chrome.

Works of for me. Thank you for mentioning it as I was trying to see where the settings were for rejecting permissions

Exactly. For weeks whenever I try an mumsnet on my adult dds iPad where im not logged on I've had this pop up.

Copy and pasted from the pop up. There should be a privacy policy settings at the bottom of every page.

We and our 181 partners use cookies and similar technologies to store and process personal data, such as unique identifiers and browsing activity, to personalise your experience and advertising. You can update your preferences or withdraw consent at any time via "Privacy settings" at the bottom of each page. For more details, see our Privacy Policy.

Same. I’ve rejected all permissions now.

Yes but something has changed for users like me who were not getting the popup when using a device on which we were already logged in. The popup started to appear for us today.

As I said before, I think this is an interim step. They have always given people the ability to subscribe to Premium. Non-subscribers had to see ads but could reject cookies.

So they’ve started to push the existing pop up a bit more in order to get a few more voluntary subscribers.

But soon they will be telling people that if they don’t subscribe they will no longer be able to reject cookies. They’ll also push back on anyone who has an ad blocker installed.

I can see that would be ethical for MN simply to charge for use of the site, but to keep the site free and charge users for making use of their statutory right to refuse cookie consent seems underhand. Is that not like charging people for (e.g.) making use of their statutory right to return goods bought online in accordance with consumer law?

I'm a bit baffled as to whether I have accepted cookies in the past - largely because MN's interface at the point where they ask me about cookies is very user-unfriendly. I have always intended to refuse as many as possible but may have messed up

Apols if the question has already been asked on the thread, but could anyone tell me how I check? (I am using a laptop and my browser is chrome).

If I have to leave MN, that will be very good for me. It will be like when Musk took over Twitter and made it worse. It gave me the nudge I needed to leave its toxicity behind. I only came back to MN as a kind of methadone to help me cope with Twitter withdrawal. And presumably even methadone shouldn't be forever.

MN certainly has become a much more horrible place in terms of user content. Generally I feel quite positive about how the site is run and moderated, but the misleading and insulting epithet of freeloader/piggybacker is something that it is hard to forgive.

It reminds me of all the really crappy little tourist trinket shops in pretty parts of the UK where the shopkeeper sits there fuming at the people who come in and look round the shop but find nothing that they want to buy. As if we should feel guilty for simply entering a shop in accordance with all the basic conventions of retail.

When I try and reject all privacy settings the box just closes ?

I'll question my use of this site moving forward.

Posters make threads, we are the product, you provide the forum and host it... oh and moderate.. poorly..

No users. No.product. no ads.

Yep me too. They have probably tampered with those settings too.

I don't think we are able to reject it. I think most websites will go the same way.

Why is the reject button even there then? What a bloody shambles.

Mumsnet ads regularly freeze my browser and sometimes my whole phone.
I've been just about tolerating it without an Ad blocker.

Now I'll have to tolerate it AND give away my data???

That's like charging a drowning person for the water they're choking on.

It was on to-do list anyways to clear up my phone & email and improve security - wiping Mumsnet will go a long way towards that. Bye.

It reminds me of all the really crappy little tourist trinket shops in pretty parts of the UK where the shopkeeper sits there fuming at the people who come in and look round the shop but find nothing that they want to buy. As if we should feel guilty for simply entering a shop in accordance with all the basic conventions of retail.
I love this 😂

I'm also finding that the privacy settings link at the foot of the page isn't working. As far as I recall, it is a requirement under the terms of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations and/or UKGDPR that it should be easy for us to withdraw cookie consent at any time, so I imagine that MNHQ will quickly put this right <Paddington stare>.

It’s just worked for me. I guess if you log out and in again you’ll get a pop up.

I'm sorry if I am being a complete idiot but where do I find cookie/privacy settings (I've looked on My Account and don't see it!!)?

Really interesting guidance from the ICO about the 'pay or consent' model here: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/online-tracking/consent-or-pay/about-this-guidance/

I imagine that the recent publication of this guidance is the reason why MNHQ have introduced this model now.

The guidance sets out the conditions that must be in place for consent (to process personal data) to count as 'freely given' in the context of a “consent or pay” model.

@BeckyAMumsnet if someone accidentally clicks on "read for free" and then changes their mind and decides they do not want the cookies, tracking etc, what do they need to do to cancel that?

1. 63 staff.
2. Director paid £265k.
3. £2 million profit.
4. £1.8m retained dividends for 2023 (so can be taken in later years).
5. But no way to stop disgusting, illegal images being uploaded during the night.
6. Users now can't upload photos.
7. Now charging to reject cookies.

Get your priorities straight. You could have fixed the image issue before landing this on the users.

I use a VPN so I can't be tracked.

Well it’s not free to run a website so either you allow ads or you pay a small subscription? What other option would you suggest? It’s not a charity.