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> I feel … I have been tricked Everything “free” coming from a company means they’ve found a way to monetise you in some way. The big long ToS we all casually
by isodev 2y ago
> I feel … I have been tricked
Everything “free” coming from a company means they’ve found a way to monetise you in some way. The big long ToS we all casually accept without reading says so too.
Other random examples which appear free but aren’t: using a search engine, using the browser that comes with your phone, instagram, YouTube… etc.
It’s not always about data collection, sometimes it’s platform lock-in, or something else but there is always a side of it that makes sense for their profit margin.
- hackernewds 2y agoonly a sith speaks in absolute. plenty of especially free AI products out there
- akritrime 2y agoand who is funding them? how are they paying for their servers? a product can't be free, someone somewhere is paying for it. the main question is why are they paying for it.
- isodev 2y agoWhich are surely, totally not ingesting every iota of data they can get their hands on (legally or not, including your prompts) for training and the soon-to-be born “embedded ads”.
- phito 2y agoThey're free because they're either gathering more data or trying to capture the market.
- kreddor 2y agoNo such thing as a free lunch.
- 9dev 2y agoHiding shady or unexpected stuff in the TOS is illegal in the EU and other countries for example. So just because some companies behave amoral, that doesn’t mean we just have to accept hundreds of pages of legalese being able to dictate us.
- phito 2y agoWe don't have to accept it no, but also you shouldn't be dumbfounded when it happens. Always assume everyone is doing it.
- RandomThoughts3 2y agoI don’t think there is something amoral here. Niantic explicitly sends players to take videos of places for rewards. It’s not like it’s done in a sneaky way. Being somehow surprised they actually plan to do things with the data they have you gather is a bit weird.
- zorked 2y agoNo, it isn't. Stop normalizing this behavior. There was no consent. You expect that you are playing a game, not working for them for free.
- b3lvedere 2y agoI absolutely agree with you that this should not be the norm. The fact is that "they" absolutely do it and even give you "rewards" for your behaviour and actions in the free game. Reminds me of a certain opiod crisis, but now it is combining software with the human phyche almost directly.
- RandomThoughts3 2y agoOf course there was consent. There is even an explicit EULA listing in plain writing that you are actually collecting data for them that people have to agree to before playing. That people suddenly wake up to the fact that they were dumb for providing labour for worthless virtual gifts doesn't magically allow them to claim it was abuse post-fact.
- isodev 2y agoIf people don’t read or understand the EULA, then it violates the spirit of the legislation (not to mention it’s plain shady). Consent must be voluntary (opt-in) and informed.