This article contains another iteration of the argument that 'If the product is free, then you are the product' (it's stated slightly differently in the article). Ian O'Byrne writes, correctly, that "What we trade away in exchange for ease of use is our privacy, personal data, communications, and creative work. All of which can be quietly harvested and exploited by powerful companies." But there is an exception to the rule. You're not paying for this newsletter (and many like it) and yet you're not the product - you're just a lucky bystander who gets to look in as I try to figure out the world. There's a lot of stuff that's free and where you're not a product being packaged and sold to advertisers or worse. And there are many things you pay for where you're still the product. Price isn't what makes you the product. Something else (control, maybe? sovereignty?) is.
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