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> But you didn't pay for it. You're trying to argue that someone who made a simple trade (for example a chicken for some wool), didn't pay for what they receiv
by inetknght 7y ago
> But you didn't pay for it.
You're trying to argue that someone who made a simple trade (for example a chicken for some wool), didn't pay for what they received.
I did pay for it. The payment was in in knowledge about how I would use the service and making my time available for an advertiser to take my attention. The payment was in the ability of Google to read my private correspondence.
I think it's unethically misleadingly wrong to say people don't pay for a free service.
- skybrian 7y agoIf you walk into a shop and ask how much a newspaper costs, and they tell you it's free, they're not being misleading, even though it's paid for by advertising. It would be confusing if you asked if it was free and they said no. Pestering people who use the word "free" in the normal way has nothing to do with ethics, it's just being annoying.
- inetknght 7y agoWhen you pick up a newspaper, the advertisement was already sold. When you look at a website with an online advertiser such as Google, the advertisement is _not_ already sold. Your information is put on a marketplace to set a price for your attention and device's resources. There's a very significant asymmetry to what is being sold when comparing the two scenarios.