> Paying to get rid of ads is paying for the privilege of doing their market segmentation for them.

My local newspaper used to be wide-open. I happily subscribed but never logged in.

Then they launched a paywall, so I unsubscribed. I didn't want to be a part of their logged-in paid premium user dragnet.

The phone-call to cancel was a bit confusing for the CSR.

"May I ask why are you cancelling?"

Me: "Oh, because of the paywall"

CSR: "Oh, that's just a technical issue, we can help you with that"

Me: "Nono, you don't understand, I'm cancelling because there is _a_ paywall"

I doubt my "reason for cancelling" got coded correctly.