Instapaper returns for EU users post-GDPR with new premium subscription option

Instapaper is returning for users in member states of the European Union after a two-month service blackout now that the read-it-later app says it is compliant with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Instapaper originally shut off service for EU users back in May, just days before the far-reaching privacy law went into effect. GDPR established stricter rules around data collection and user consent, and its complexity had many companies scrambling to ensure they were not found in violation ahead of the May 25th deadline.

“Over the past two months we have taken a number of actions to address the General Data Protection Regulation, and we are happy to announce our return to the European Union,” reads a blog post from Brian Donohue and Rodion Gusev, who now run Instapaper independently after they split from parent company Pinterest last month.

They say they’ve updated Instapaper’s privacy policy, though it remains unclear at the moment why it took so long to become GDPR-compliant. Donohue and Gusev say they’re posing the privacy policy to GitHub “in the interest of transparency” where any interested user can view a versioned history of all the changes to it.

Instapaper is also announcing today that it’s relaunching its premium subscription as a way to sustain the business now that it’s no longer a part of Pinterest. You can pay $3 a month or $30 a year for features like full-text search, unlimited notes, an ad-free web experience, and a “send to Kindle” bookmarklet tool. To make up for the two-month service outage for EU users, Donohue and Gusev say all affected users can claim a complimentary six-month subscription to Instapaper Premium.