The "if it's free" trope comes up on the regular in these threads. There are numerous examples out there, but off the top of my head, I pay for my cell service,

The "if it's free" trope comes up on the regular in these threads. There are numerous examples out there, but off the top of my head, I pay for my cell service, my car's gas, airline tickets, and my rent, and all of those push advertising on me anyways. While there is an argument for a product needing a revenue stream to survive, paying for a product clearly does not save you from ads and data collection. The company is there like Bilbo Baggins, holding the One Ring, and asking itself, "After all, why shouldn't I have both revenue from the customer and the ad revenue?"