In a "free service" the service company often makes money by selling ad space to third parties for displaying to users or by selling user information to third p

In a "free service" the service company often makes money by selling ad space to third parties for displaying to users or by selling user information to third parties. In each of these models, the user of the service, who isn't paying money, is actually the product not the customer. Yet, many users believe that these free services are being run for their benefit free-of-charge, which is clearly a bad assumption to make.