Instapaper makes it easy to to tag web pages so you can read them later, unless you’re in the European Union. The service is temporarily shutting down in the EU starting on May 24th while it’s brought in to compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.
GDPR is a law giving EU residents control over their online information and data. It requires explicit consent to let websites keep personal information, limits how companies can use information collected online, and requires sites to let users download whatever personal information they’re storing.
Technology journalist Owen Williams called out Instapaper on Twitter saying, “Holy crap, Instapaper is basically going dark in Europe with <24 hours notice because GDPR.”
Holy crap, Instapaper is basically going dark in Europe with <24 hours notice because GDPR. 🙅♀️ pic.twitter.com/JNQzzxOsiE
— ⚡ Owen (@ow) May 23, 2018
That’s no doubt frustrating for Instapaper users in the EU, especially since GDPR was enacted two years ago. Enforcement is set to start on Friday, May 25th.
Preparing for GDPR is pretty complicated for a lot of companies, and Instapaper may be trying to sort out how to deal with any data that’s shared with its parent company Pinterest. Still, they’ve had two years to work out the details and giving EU users less than 24 hours notice is a pretty hard pill to swallow.