The title of this post seems like a concept forgotten. Don't get me wrong, those who know me personally can attest I'm as thrifty as they get. I enjoy deal hunting at thrift stores, buying second hand on Craiglist, and when something is FREE I will snag it up in a moment if it has value to me or anyone else. While some may say I am becoming a borderline hoarder I consider this a form of recycling. The laptop I'm typing on was purchased 2nd hand on ebay, the power supply is a spare I got at Goodwill. Buying retail makes me cringe but one thing I do know, you get what you pay for.When something is free, there is always a hidden cost. This doesn't matter if the item is tangible or not. Free services are no exception.
Many of us use free services everyday. This blog is free, posting to it is free, sharing it on Facebook is free, in fact most of the popular services online now are free. Gone are the days when you paid to connect to the internet PLUS a monthly fee for the services you enjoy. Those who started out on AOL so when broadband internet came to the mainstream and it was a separate bill, some kept paying AOL. As I type I'm using free WiFi and free electricity.
But is free really free? This coffee cost me $1 more than the drive thru price. What are the hidden costs? It's simple really. There are two ways you pay for your free online services. You pay with attention or you pay with your privacy.
By attention I mean the ads on the screen that you view. Like TV commercials and radio ads, websites, blogs, and Facebook capture your attention with advertisements they sell. Google places context relevant ads in the unused spaces on nearly all of the services they offer. Most beta services they keep clean until you get hooked, then the ads start rolling. YouTube rarely had any advertising but now most videos not have commercials or sponsored ads in one way or another. This advertising is so effective they even pay me if people click on ads associated with my content. You should be seeing Groupon ads and Google Adsense ads on the right side of this post.
When it comes to making money exploiting your privacy, this is where the biggest growth will take place over the next few years. More people are walking around with trackers that report back where you are, and what you are doing at every moment. Some of us even help by posting what business we just "checked in" to and rating everything from food to music in real time. All this data is collected, analyzed, and monetized by the companies who provide these free apps, games, and services.
If you enjoy these things and yet complain about privacy, first think about why you get all this for free. Opting out of certain tracking is sometimes a good idea, but sharing your likes, dislikes and where you shop may not be such a bad thing. Before too long you may never see an advertisement for a product you have no interest in, everything will be so well targeted to where you are what you like you may even start enjoying commercials. You can be sure if you use Gmail, google knows more about you than your spouse and I think I trust google more to pick out my birthday present too.
Recently Sony's PlayStation network was hacked, users personal information compromised, and it still as of this posting is not yet back online. Unlike the XBox Live service that cost $59 per year to join, Sony's network was free. Sure you had to buy the console, but no annual subscription means it was a one time investment. Many are upset that this shouldn't have happened and that Sony was negligent. This was a free added value add on to the Sony game platform, if it is down for maintenance while they beef up security to prevent future privacy breaches I'm good with that. I'm not paying for the service so I'm not really loosing money out of my wallet.
Remember, you get what you pay for and if you complain about the quality of free services, then just ask for your money back and shut up.
That's my viewpoint.
