Also there is an underlying class thing going on with "you are the product". Choosing to pay for a service is not just an equal alternative to a free service for most people. Most people have to work hard to afford paid services, many of them at low wages. Sneering at people who choose to use a free service rather than sell their time for $15 an hour is not a great look.
I'm not arguing whether or not those services actually "make you the product", I'm just railing against this annoying rhetoric that "being free" in itself somehow makes a service exploitative.
If you allow yourself to be treated as the product, then you are indeed the product.
Don't use "free" services if you object to the designation, because to the owners of those services, you are literally nothing but a product sold to whomever is paying for you to receive that free service.
Every "free" email, search engine, repo, etc., isn't a product to the end user, even if it mimics one. It is a way for advertisers and data miners to access the site owner's product -- your eyes and info.
Also, because its wrong. In the usual case, you are the supplier of the product, being paid for the supplied product with the "free" service, and recognize that -- rather than viewing yourself as the product -- is more useful because it frames what you should be evaluating: is what you are receiving for the product you are providing worth the cost to you of providing that product.
Note - I'm not saying people don't have a reason to provide free stuff. I'm saying that the soundbite "you're the product!" is lazy, and sometimes misleading.
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