I wait for google to ask for an opt in in robots.txt and reward this with a higher rating. Then, in a few years, they can exclusively serve opt in content.
Google News is already an opt-in system by way of defining metadata and a very particular XML sitemap
I was reading this article until a full page ad with no close button created a fake Facebook page with a roulette wheel offering me a prize.
Well, at least you got a prize.
All I got was a modal I had to remove with the element inspector.
You can read it without annoyance by copy/pasting even if the modal is up. As much as I'd like a rational discussion about link preview of snippets (such as Google and DDG do for Wikipedia, StackOverflow articles, and also for news from ad-financed sites such that users don't go to the origin sources), this article unfortunately isn't contributing.
Techdirt has trackers and profiles enabled by default which is against GDPR.
They operate out of the US so they probably don't care. As an EU citizen you should file a formal complaint.
In GDPR-land here, the site pushes a modal covering the content that lets you configure trackers. I'm no Phoenix Wright, but it looks like compliance to me.
Not to worry, pretty soon we'll have a global internet and an EU only one...
They did show me a banner asking me to accept cookies and offering a management panel - where I turned all but the "necessary" identifiers off. I thought this was GDPR compliant, enlighten me I I'm wrong.