Yes, I totally agree with that assessment. In this context, it's hard to think of a legitimate marketing purpose. Potentially you could do something like record

Yes, I totally agree with that assessment. In this context, it's hard to think of a legitimate marketing purpose. Potentially you could do something like record the IP address and if the person comes back put up a banner saying, "I've noticed you were here before. If you pay $X per month, you can skip all the third party ads". That would be legitimate interest I think (you would still have to do something to allow them to object like putting on a button that said, "Never show me this again"). I can't think of any legitimate reason for passing on personal data to a third party, as you say. Edit: Now that I think about it, the Guardian does exactly that... Probably why I thought of it LOL.