We’re getting lots of complaints about the “Want better ads and bigger prizes?” continually popping up. This is not supposed to happen, it is only happening to a minority of visitors, and it most certainly is not a conspiracy to coerce you into consenting to sharing data. Please be patient while we, and the rest of the internet try to fix it.

The need to ask for consent is a requirement imposed upon us (and every other business) by the EU. The ad companies have decided they will only serve their ads to publishers (like us) who use an approved consent management platform (CMP) tool, like this one. These tools (ironically) depend on dropping a cookie to function. It appears this isn’t always working.

Internet ads rely on a very complicated infrastructure, with networks of third parties all relying on assumptions about each other, that have been thrown into disarray by the arrival of GDPR. We suspect the cause of the continual popups is either one of, or a combination of:

1. Ads throwing errors and interfering with the tool
2. A bug with the tool itself
3. Users having 3rd party cookies disabled in their browser, and not being aware of it.

We’ve just implemented a fix for the last one, but the other two are outside our control. I’m sure this is just temporary turbulence, so please fasten your seatbelts until it is resolved. The ever-helpful Dave Moore has been suggesting in the comments that manually accessing the popup via My account > Privacy > View advertiser settings and choosing your settings stops the popup. If you want to withdraw consent, or give consent, you can go back here at any time you want. The popup is showing more often than it should for users who have consented as well as those who haven’t, so please don’t feel like you have to change your answer. And remember consenting simply allows ad companies to use stuff that 3rd parties already know about you to select a more relevant ad. You are not consenting to sharing your data.

Meanwhile, we’re in the process of switching daily email sending from chris@freepostcodelottery.com to chris@pickmypostcode.com. Somewhat predictably, ISPs are not liking it and “junking” our daily emails. In particular, Gmail. An added headache.

We really appreciate your patience with all of the above, but if you would like to go further and help us, any of the below would be even more appreciated:

1. Answer the question we’ve added to the Survey Draw so we can work out what % of you are affected.
2. If it’s happening to you please contact us to tell us what device and browser you are using. Is there anything else that appears broken?
3. Add chris@pickmypostcode.com to your address book, whitelist, or safe-senders list. Instructions here.
4. Share your referral link to help replace some of the members who have left in a huff 🙂

We really hope we get these issues sorted out quickly. Thanks for your patience and support.

Chris & Team.