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Comment by wj | Hacker News Reader

I honestly haven't dived into GDPR but I don't see a problem with a website owner offering something of value (an ebook) in exchange for something else of value (an email address). Disallowing that voluntary transactions oversteps the bounds of what I view a free state to be.

Would adding a second checkbox ("I'm not a resident of the EU") be a way for a site owner to still provide this to exchange to non-EU residents?

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Well, for one, he's not gathering explicit consent anywhere. Just because there's a privacy policy and controller information at the bottom of the page doesn't mean I explicitly agree to have my data used for any purpose.

The question is what you do with the e-mail address. e.g., if the page would say:

1. "we provide this book for free, but collect your e-mail to follow up once in about 1 month time with a relevant offer." ==> this might even work from a "legitimate interest" view, but thats currently not well defined

2. "click here to provide consent for us collecting your email and using it for ..., ..., ..."

Thanks for your points. ConvertKit allows to show a GDPR consent screen to EU users. I didn't enable it at first, my fault.

Below the form the intent is clear, but you should also be allowed to only get the ebook without having any further email from me.

The exchange email -> ebook in itself isn't problematic with regards to the GDPR, phrasing it not as an exchange but a free gift is.

edit: You may of course not like my comment, but it is factually correct: GDPR really doesn't forbid combining the newsletter entry with a bait like a free ebook, as long as you don't phrase the newsletter membership as "free" and use double opt-in.

I didn't downvote you but I do like that your edit provides more info!

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