This may blow some minds, but we keep data from paying users too. It’s the nature of the business.

In the interest of transparency you should probably disclose which business that is.

Yes, when you're telling the angry mob why you won't give in to their irrational demands, you should definitely tell them who you are and how to hurt you...for transparency.

No, it's just that I would not want to do business with him.

After all, if someone exhibits a certain attitude towards their users' data that is a good indicator that there is more that isn't done properly.

It's funny that you think that it's totally ok to do this.

It’s funny how easily you throw around straw man fallacies.

Well European users (like other users) don't want to pay as well. And why create a specific feature for European users when globally people are just fine clicking on ads.

What makes you think that European users do not want to pay for content they consume? Given that Europeans passed this law we apparently are.

You don't need to create a specific feature for European users if you don't want to, just as European users don't need to do business with you if you don't value their privacy. Economic exchanges are voluntary. If you think ignoring European customers is something that pays off for you, go for it.

Can you point me to any specific study which says that Europeans are more willing pay for content vs. rest of the world? I mean, if that were true, you would see a lot more paywalls in Europe vs. globally.

I don't know of any such study but I'm not sure why I need to given that this law quite clearly reveals the preference of European citizens?

If we would not care about privacy to a greater degree than other regions we would presumably not pass legislation that protects private information and cuts into ad-revenues.

Even if you charge EU customers for goods and services, you end up having to collect and store personal information in order to provide evidence to tax authorities that you collected and paid the right amount of VAT for each country.

that's not in violation with the GDPR at all. (it's also nothing that anybody is really concerned about).

What's really being affected on the backend side of things is bulk data collection and storage and sharing with 3rd parties without consent.