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MNHQ

Introducing Pay or Consent on Mumsnet

8 replies

BeckyAMumsnet · 05/02/2025 09:07

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.

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MNHQ

BeckyAMumsnet · 05/02/2025 11:09

HowardTJMoon · 05/02/2025 09:48

@BeckyAMumsnet serious question: there are multiple long-running threads in site_stuff about problems with ads on this site. Ads that are causing web browsers to lock up. Ads that are outright malware. Ads that are blatant scams. I've experienced all these myself on this site but not on other sites of a similar size. Mumsnet's response to those threads and problems has been cursory at best. The bogus ad problems remain and it's the prime reason why many are using ad-blockers here.

Why is mumsnet pushing ahead with this change in policy as a priority over fixing the awful ad supply chain problems you've got?

We’ve been speaking with our cyber security agency about this and during recent attacks, it blocked nearly 100K malicious ad impressions a day. When a new malicious campaign kicks off, there’s a short window where our system is still catching up, so a few bad ads might slip through. And with threat actors constantly switching tactics - sometimes making hundreds of tweaks a day, it’s a bit of a cat-and-mouse game. We’re on it, but we can’t promise perfect blocking every time, which obviously we’d prefer. We’re also working on improving how ads display overall for smoother experience for everyone.

MNHQ

BeckyAMumsnet · 05/02/2025 16:49

We’ll get to as many of your questions as we can - please bear with us. For those asking about Premium subscriptions and the security of your payment details - all payments are processed securely through Stripe, a trusted payment provider used by millions of businesses worldwide. Your card details are encrypted, we cannot see them and they're never stored by us.

MNHQ

BeckyAMumsnet · 05/02/2025 16:57

AlertBrickBear · 05/02/2025 16:51

For me, it’s not so much the payment details, but that I’d have to give my full name and other information to MN presumably? I worry about breaches for doing that. But maybe I’m wrong and I don’t need to?

Show quote history

Your payment details in Stripe are not linked to your Mumsnet account (e.g. we don't know if a user has Premium just by looking at their MN account) and only a small number of staff at MNHQ have access to this for issuing refunds/cancellations, etc.

MNHQ

BeckyAMumsnet · 05/02/2025 18:13

For those asking about what we use data for - we do not share personally identifiable information (PII) with advertisers. The data we collect is used in an anonymised or aggregated form to improve your experience and support our publishing services. Advertisers use cookies to show you ads that are more relevant to your interests. This is done without sharing any personally identifiable information. For example, if you read articles about technology, you might see ads for tech products, but advertisers won’t know your name, email, or other personal details. We comply with UK GDPR and other privacy regulations to ensure your data is handled responsibly. You can manage your cookie preferences at any time through our privacy settings at the bottom of the page.

MNHQ

BeckyAMumsnet · 05/02/2025 18:16

TwentyTwentyFive · 05/02/2025 17:15

Well I'm pleased to see you're back Becky but there's still a lot of unanswered questions and the few you have responded to the answers haven't really clarified much.

Please bear with us - we will get to your questions. 🙏

MNHQ

BeckyAMumsnet · 10/02/2025 10:11

BloominNora · 05/02/2025 16:18

@BeckyAMumsnet - could you provide the link to your DPIA which demonstrates MNs assessment of the impact of the consent or pay model please? Or at the very least explain how the assessment confirms that you are complying with GDPR.

I may be reading it wrong, but it seems to me that the ICO guidance strongly suggests that the option to accept or pay a single monthly fee makes it difficult to demonstrate that consent is being freely given, especially if there is a power imbalance, which there is between MN and it's existing users, in which case, it is potentially illegal.

Relevant links below with the bits of the guidance relevant to MN highlighted in bold

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/online-tracking/consent-or-pay/about-this-guidance/#law

Bundled access and “consent or pay” models

“Consent or pay” models differ from a “take it or leave it” model, as the presence of a “pay” option means that accessing the service is not solely conditional on people providing consent. This can, providing the model meets the factors in this guidance, enable people to make a meaningful choice.

However, the “pay” option may introduce a separate issue. Where a fee is presented as an alternative to consent, it has the effect of combining:

  • access to the core product or service without personalised advertising; and
  • not sharing personal data for the purposes of personalised advertising.

When the only alternative to consent is paying a single price which combines access to the core product with a fee for avoiding sharing personal data for the purposes of personalised advertising, it can be difficult to demonstrate freely given consent. You can find further details on this in the power imbalance and appropriate fee chapters.

Organisations can offer additional options to access the product or service alongside the “consent or pay” options, for example:

  • Access to the product or service that does not require people to consent to personalised advertising or pay to avoid personalised advertising. This may include access to the service with contextual advertising where advertising is targeted based on the content of the page the user is currently viewing.
  • Offering a menu of options including different premium subscription tiers with additional features, as well as the “consent” and “pay” options.
You can read further details about these options in the power imbalance, appropriate fee and equivalence chapters.

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/online-tracking/consent-or-pay/power-imbalance/

Power Imbalance:

“Consent or pay” models must meet the standard for freely given consent. You must be able to demonstrate that people have a free choice to give consent and that they are not unfairly penalised for refusing or withdrawing consent.

You should assess whether there is a power imbalance between you and the people that use your product or service. This should consider all the relevant circumstances, including:

  • the type of organisation you are (for example, a public authority or someone in an employer-to-employee relationship);
  • the extent to which people rely on your service; and
  • your position in the market.

Your assessment for a power imbalance should form part of your overall assessment for demonstrating your “consent or pay” model’s compliance with data protection law. You should take a reasonable and proportionate approach to demonstrating how you’ve assessed your product or service against this factor.

You should consider the impact of introducing a “consent or pay” model on existing users of a product or service and whether there is a clear power imbalance with them, particularly considering any barriers to users switching and whether there are comparable alternative products or services they could use instead.

Where there is a clear power imbalance between you and the people that use your product or service, you are unlikely to be able to operate a “consent or pay” model without taking steps to address the power imbalance. This is because it is unlikely that people could provide freely given consent.

Where there is a clear power imbalance, you should take steps to address it and ensure people can freely give their consent. You could do this by offering an alternative way to access your service that doesn’t rely on the user consenting to personalised advertising or paying to avoid personalised advertising.

We've carefully considered ICO Guidance in making this change and we're confident that we meet it, having taken into account the four key areas, namely power imbalance, appropriate fee, equivalence and privacy by design.

MNHQ

BeckyAMumsnet · 25/02/2025 14:32

ClematisBlue49 · 13/02/2025 15:49

@BeckyAMumsnet , are you able to confirm whether or not those who are already logged on, and previously had their privacy settings as 'Reject All', have had their settings amended behind the scenes without their knowledge?

Many thanks

Show quote history

Sorry @ClematisBlue49 I missed this. No, we have not amended users' privacy settings behind the scenes. If you previously set your preferences to 'Reject All,' those choices would not have been changed without your knowledge .

MNHQ

HebeMumsnet · 03/03/2025 10:26

Morning @FrutenGlee. That's very strange! Thanks for letting us know. Our consent model shouldn't affect any other sites (and vice versa). Could you try clearing your cache to see if that helps? Using a different browser might be a way round it too.

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