3 ms·

You are getting free searches, email, messaging, photo storage etc

briffle 5y ago
I would pay a fee to some sites to keep using their service, without tracking/advertising. But they don't offer it as an option.
- whatever1 5y ago
  There are paid options for example for email, but still people prefer the free options. Market has spoken. People just don't care about being tracked, specially if they get free goodies. As an anecdote: I am the only one in my extended family who does not use the car insurance tracker. Everyone is calling me out on why I dont get the "free" discount.
  - ClumsyPilot 5y ago
    "People just don't care" People are being massively lied to about what is veing tracked and what is being done with that info. Or maybe these services are a monopoly, where they could start eating babies and not loose their audience anyway The best is when a service is paid and it still traks you, like amazon
  - toss1 5y ago
    I'm with you I pay for email services (and make some use of gmail for junk/transactions). I also would never use one of the insurance trackers. They literally have zero clue of what they are doing and interpret things backwards. E.g., they interpret higher g-forces as bad driving. Yet, as someone who has been through countless high-performance driving and race schools, had racing lisenses, and won multiple racing championships, I can tell you that what high-performance driving, whether racing or getting out of emergencies, is about wringing out of the vehicle, suspenseion and tires, every last bit of grip to maximally accelerate, brake, and/or turn. Of course, I'm usually very smooth and low-g on public roads, but if I do something like maneuver around an animal in the road, they'd see a high-G maneuver and charge me for bad driving, when in fact, I probably saved them from a claim. It is a lovely concept, but the institutional idiocy really bothers me.
- unethical_ban 5y ago
  There are open source map applications, paid email services (I use one), private-cloud office stacks like NextCloud. You could, but you don't.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- yifanl 5y ago
  The fee you pay would almost certainly be less than the value they can extract from your metadata (especially since it can only grow more valuable as time passes)
awillen 5y ago
I don't get why this is so easily glossed over all the time... yeah, absolutely you should be able to control your data and know how it's being used. You should be able to opt out of unnecessary data collection. But the idea that you're not getting compensated for your data just isn't true - you get some really amazing tools without paying a dime for them.
shkkmo 5y ago
I get free searches from DuckDuckGo without paying with my personal information. It is absolutely possible to provide free services, supported by ads, while collecting little to no personal information.

I would pay a fee to some sites to keep using their service, without tracking/advertising. But they don't offer it as an option.

whatever1 5y ago
There are paid options for example for email, but still people prefer the free options. Market has spoken. People just don't care about being tracked, specially if they get free goodies. As an anecdote: I am the only one in my extended family who does not use the car insurance tracker. Everyone is calling me out on why I dont get the "free" discount.
- ClumsyPilot 5y ago
  "People just don't care" People are being massively lied to about what is veing tracked and what is being done with that info. Or maybe these services are a monopoly, where they could start eating babies and not loose their audience anyway The best is when a service is paid and it still traks you, like amazon
- toss1 5y ago
  I'm with you I pay for email services (and make some use of gmail for junk/transactions). I also would never use one of the insurance trackers. They literally have zero clue of what they are doing and interpret things backwards. E.g., they interpret higher g-forces as bad driving. Yet, as someone who has been through countless high-performance driving and race schools, had racing lisenses, and won multiple racing championships, I can tell you that what high-performance driving, whether racing or getting out of emergencies, is about wringing out of the vehicle, suspenseion and tires, every last bit of grip to maximally accelerate, brake, and/or turn. Of course, I'm usually very smooth and low-g on public roads, but if I do something like maneuver around an animal in the road, they'd see a high-G maneuver and charge me for bad driving, when in fact, I probably saved them from a claim. It is a lovely concept, but the institutional idiocy really bothers me.
unethical_ban 5y ago
There are open source map applications, paid email services (I use one), private-cloud office stacks like NextCloud. You could, but you don't.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
yifanl 5y ago
The fee you pay would almost certainly be less than the value they can extract from your metadata (especially since it can only grow more valuable as time passes)

awillen 5y ago

I don't get why this is so easily glossed over all the time... yeah, absolutely you should be able to control your data and know how it's being used. You should be able to opt out of unnecessary data collection. But the idea that you're not getting compensated for your data just isn't true - you get some really amazing tools without paying a dime for them.

shkkmo 5y ago

I get free searches from DuckDuckGo without paying with my personal information. It is absolutely possible to provide free services, supported by ads, while collecting little to no personal information.