Help us test a new subscription technology: webpass

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#1404763 13-Oct-2015 08:36

Signed up. Will report back with feedback once I have something meaningful to report. Initial impressions are that page load times are much faster.

chiefie

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#1404798 13-Oct-2015 09:14

Registered, install and using it. Seems faster too :-D

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mentalinc

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#1404856 13-Oct-2015 10:59

freitasm:
mentalinc: So you still get tracked by the advertisers (they are sent your headers and decide not to push ads), and you're now personally identified via the headers I assume.

They just make their money from the subs and then by knowing more about you and providing you ads on "non supported" sites?

No.

Advertisers are never involved. Webpass tells me you are a subscriber, we remove the ad codes before sending page out.

Read description again.

I read this as the advertising companies not "publishers' as in the website you're viewing.

Webpass publishers will not show ads to visitors that come with the correct headers

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Webpassio

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#1404872 13-Oct-2015 11:08

Hi,

First, I'd like to say thanks for giving Webpass.io a try! If you have any problems with the system, feel free to email us (check support on the website).

If you see any ads slip through on occasion, it would be great if you could let us know how frequently that happens.

mentalinc: So you still get tracked by the advertisers (they are sent your headers and decide not to push ads), and you're now personally identified via the headers I assume. They just make their money from the subs and then by knowing more about you and providing you ads on "non supported" sites?

This is a good question. In our privacy policy we say:

We may share information as discussed below, but we won't sell your personal information to advertisers or other third-parties. You, as a subscriber, are our customer, and so our primary concern is with offering you a service that protects your interests.

Our mission is to provide an alternative to the advertising industry, not to be a part of it. One of the reasons I personally want a sustainable alternative is to avoid being tracked by advertisers, but in a way that still supports website owners. Webpass.io should be a service I'd be willing to use, and I wouldn't use it if my data were sold to advertisers.

With regards to websites you visit tracking you, the header that gets sent each time is randomised every time you load a page. When a website is partnered, they do get a unique ID identifying you, but your unique ID is different for each website you visit (site A sees '<ID1>', site B sees '<ID2>'), and this can be turned off in your account settings.

One Subscription. Many Websites. No ads. https://webpass.io

freitasm

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#1404873 13-Oct-2015 11:08

mentalinc:
freitasm:
mentalinc: So you still get tracked by the advertisers (they are sent your headers and decide not to push ads), and you're now personally identified via the headers I assume.

They just make their money from the subs and then by knowing more about you and providing you ads on "non supported" sites?

No.

Advertisers are never involved. Webpass tells me you are a subscriber, we remove the ad codes before sending page out.

Read description again.

I read this as the advertising companies not "publishers' as in the website you're viewing.
Webpass publishers will not show ads to visitors that come with the correct headers

Publishers... in this case is Geekzone.
Advertisers are... advertisers, advertising delivery platforms, advertising networks.
Webpass manages subscriptions and tells publishers if the sub request is valid or not.
Publishers remove ad code from pages before sending out from servers.
Advertisers are never involved.

Clear enough?

gzt

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#1404998 13-Oct-2015 13:12

Webpassio

The webpass.io privacy policy is well thought out and I see you plan further technical progress in that area.

Currently you store the domain of subscriber sites and the domain of all sites visited by each user. I understand you need this information to sell services to new clients. But as as user I would prefer this information is collected on a one way basis and cannot be associated. On a technical basis it is possible to meet both requirements and become the gold standard in privacy.

It is already pretty good privacy policy and it is clear that webpass.io understands the issues.

Kyanar

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#1405005 13-Oct-2015 13:28

gzt:
Webpassio

The webpass.io privacy policy is well thought out and I see you plan further technical progress in that area.

Currently you store the domain of subscriber sites and the domain of all sites visited by each user. I understand you need this information to sell services to new clients. But as as user I would prefer this information is collected on a one way basis and cannot be associated. On a technical basis it is possible to meet both requirements and become the gold standard in privacy.

It is already pretty good privacy policy and it is clear that webpass.io understands the issues.

I'm pretty sure Geekzone is unaffiliated with Webpass, and is just a publisher utilising them - so I don't think GZ is storing any of the information you are talking about.

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freitasm

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#1405012 13-Oct-2015 13:40

We're not storing any information, although we could store the webpass id against your Geekzone user_id so that we could show "Subscriber" in the profile (answering someone else's earlier question). Not doing this at the moment.

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#1405015 13-Oct-2015 13:46

gzt:
Webpassio

I understand you need this information to sell services to new clients. But as as user I would prefer this information is collected on a one way basis and cannot be associated. On a technical basis it is possible to meet both requirements and become the gold standard in privacy.

It is on our roadmap to include a privacy setting to have this sort of data anonymised on our servers after a few hours. There are a few technical reasons that make this difficult to release right now.

Here's one reason why we don't anonymise it immediately. When you visit a partnering website with a paid subscription, that usually means that website has some money credited to their account. If you visit that site again within an hour, it doesn't credit them any more money: that initial payment was to cover your visits for the space of an hour or so (and is priced accordingly). There are a couple of reasons for this:

Users who are on a limited hits plan can explore a site without worrying that they're using more of their plan up with each click
Websites have no incentive to split their content over multiple pages. Let the layout be determined by what suits the content best, rather than what generates more revenue from visiting subscribers

I do think that allowing data to be anonymised after a short period (e.g., a few hours) is going to be a valuable feature for some users.

One Subscription. Many Websites. No ads. https://webpass.io

gzt

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#1405016 13-Oct-2015 13:47

Kyanar:
gzt:
Webpassio

The webpass.io privacy policy is well thought out and I see you plan further technical progress in that area.

Currently you store the domain of subscriber sites and the domain of all sites visited by each user. I understand you need this information to sell services to new clients. But as as user I would prefer this information is collected on a one way basis and cannot be associated. On a technical basis it is possible to meet both requirements and become the gold standard in privacy.

It is already pretty good privacy policy and it is clear that webpass.io understands the issues.

I'm pretty sure Geekzone is unaffiliated with Webpass, and is just a publisher utilising them - so I don't think GZ is storing any of the information you are talking about.

It is a question for webpass. Maybe I could have made that clearer than the single line quote heading. Usually it works well ; ).

keewee01

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#1405019 13-Oct-2015 13:50

I've signed up and installed the firefox plugin. As others have reported, the site/pages does seem to be loading faster.

Webpassio

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#1405020 13-Oct-2015 13:51

It may also be possible in the future for us to offer immediate anonymised data for anyone on an unlimited plan. That's something I'd like to be able to offer.

One Subscription. Many Websites. No ads. https://webpass.io

gzt

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#1405021 13-Oct-2015 13:52

Webpassio:
gzt:
Webpassio

I understand you need this information to sell services to new clients. But as as user I would prefer this information is collected on a one way basis and cannot be associated. On a technical basis it is possible to meet both requirements and become the gold standard in privacy.

It is on our roadmap to include a privacy setting to have this sort of data anonymised on our servers after a few hours. There are a few technical reasons that make this difficult to release right now.

Here's one reason why we don't anonymise it immediately. When you visit a partnering website with a paid subscription, that usually means that website has some money credited to their account. If you visit that site again within an hour, it doesn't credit them any more money: that initial payment was to cover your visits for the space of an hour or so (and is priced accordingly). There are a couple of reasons for this:

Users who are on a limited hits plan can explore a site without worrying that they're using more of their plan up with each click

Websites have no incentive to split their content over multiple pages. Let the layout be determined by what suits the content best, rather than what generates more revenue from visiting subscribers

I do think that allowing data to be anonymised after a short period (e.g., a few hours) is going to be a valuable feature for some users.

Excellent response thank you.

mdf

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#1405107 13-Oct-2015 16:15

Have just signed up. Desktop install was quick and painless. One big tick right from the start.

Just my two cents, but for what's it worth:

- I've always hated having to remember a separate log on as well as password. Can you have an option to sign in using your email address?

- Any plans for a mobile option? A huge part of my browsing is on mobile, and I'd be interested in your plans here given that browser extensions are a bit of an issue on mobile.

- I do have an adblocker installed. If I block ads and browse to a partner site, will they still get my revenue?

freitasm

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#1405108 13-Oct-2015 16:17

mdf: - I do have an adblocker installed. If I block ads and browse to a partner site, will they still get my revenue?

It seems yes, because the check is done server side...

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