3 ms·

If it’s free you are the product. Not sure why people still don’t understand that.

• rahidz 7y ago
  It's too trite and has too many exceptions on both the free side (Linux, Wikipedia, heck, Hacker News) and the non-free (plenty of popular sites and apps that track you out the wazoo even when you do pay).
  • pmlnr 7y ago
    Linux - not a service Wikipedia - community backed Hacker News - we are the product. It's an ad space for ycombinator.
    • SamBam 7y ago
      This sounds like "no true Scotsman." What part of "it" in the saying "If it's not free..." implies that the saying is not applicable to software or community-backed websites? Surely the saying absolutely applies to free mobile games, free raffles at a car dealership, or free loyalty cards in stores. So it's not specific to "services."