How to Get Past a Paywall to Read an Article for Free - Lifehacker: “Over the past several years, countless websites have added paywalls. If you want to read their articles, you have to sign up and pay a monthly subscription cost. Some sites have a “metered” paywall—meaning you can read a certain number of articles for free before they ask for money—and others have a hard paywall, where you’ll have to pay to read even one article.
Paywalls are mostly a thing with news websites, largely because relying on advertising income alone isn’t a viable strategy anymore, and news companies are pursuing more direct revenue sources, like monthly subscriptions. Of course, paywalls aren’t entirely a bad thing—it’s worth it to support journalism you find valuable, so by all means, if you can afford to pay to read articles, you absolutely should. But whether you lost your password, haven’t saved it on your phone, are in a rush, or are just strapped for cash and promise yourself that you’ll subscribe later, there are several ways to bypass paywalls on the internet.
You may be able to use some of these methods successfully today, but that could change in the future as websites clamp down on bypass methods. If nothing else, I hope you support the websites that you do read—especially your friendly local news outlet. But if you can’t right now, here are some of the best ways to bypass paywalls online…”
96% of US hospital websites share visitor info with Meta, Google, data brokers - The Register: “Hospitals – despite being places where people implicitly expect to have their personal details kept private – frequently use tracking technologies on their websites to share user information with Google, Meta, data brokers, and other third parties, according to research published today.
Academics at the University of Pennsylvania analyzed a nationally representative sample of 100 non-federal acute care hospitals – essentially traditional hospitals with emergency departments – and their findings were that 96 percent of their websites transmitted user data to third parties.
Additionally, not all of these websites even had a privacy policy. And of the 71 percent that did, 56 percent disclosed specific third-party companies that could receive user information. “It’s shocking, and really kind of incomprehensible,” said Dr Ari Friedman, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, who – along with Matthew McCoy, Angela Wu, Sam Burdyl, Yungjee Kim, Noell Kristen Smith, and Rachel Gonzales – authored the paper…”
The 12 Companies That Together Own 500+ Consumer Brands - Quartr: “Warren Buffett famously popularized the term “moat,” stating that “a truly great business must have an enduring moat that protects excellent returns on invested capital.”
This can take shape in various forms, and according to Buffett, one of them is “possessing a powerful world-wide brand (Coca-Cola, Gillette, American Express).” The consumer goods sector is filled to the brim with such brands, and perhaps to your great surprise, most of the ones you’re using daily are likely owned by one of the twelve companies discussed in this article. Let’s have a look.
- Consolidated dominance: The consumer goods sector is largely dominated by a few conglomerates like Unilever, PepsiCo, and Procter & Gamble, which own a multitude of well-known brands.
- Sector evolution: Historically, the sector has transformed alongside the industrial revolution, adapting to changing consumer behaviors and technological advancements.
- Future trends: Moving forward, the industry is focusing on digitalization, sustainability, and global market expansion, responding to the evolving demands of modern consumers and environmental considerations.
- The sector is fairly consolidated, and the aforementioned companies, accompanied by PepsiCo, The Coca-Cola Company, Mars, Mondelez, Danone, Kraft-Heinz, Associated British Foods, General Mills, and Colgate-Palmolive, collectively own over 550 different consumer brands. Many of which you’re probably very familiar with.”
