I agree, I mainly state it like that as a foil to the commonly heard idea that these sites are giving us something for free. They're not; they're giving us a se

I agree, I mainly state it like that as a foil to the commonly heard idea that these sites are giving us something for free. They're not; they're giving us a service in exchange for what we give to them. Now and then I see someone complain about a free service, Google for instance, and receive a response such as "Well you're entitled to all your money back". This is stated as if the customer has no right to complain, because the service is 'free'. As you noted, that it is not the case. It's more of a symbiotic relationship. Thought Facebook is clearly free to do as they wish, I personally feel that using my messages to friends to promote products for Facebook's profit is something other than what I expected when I signed up.