‘When the product is free, you are the product’.

How far do you agree that digital tech giants

such Facebook and Google have exploited user’s information/data for their commercial
interests?

It is not recent news that big tech corporations use their user’s data and information for their economic
benefit. A very simple explanation to prove that the big companies do so would be that, companies
usually need money to exist, and if the service they’re providing is free, you probably are their product.
Plainly speaking, free products have to be paid for. If you are not paying for it, the product provider in
turn will make money by using you instead. With that logic, when the product is free, you are the
product’

Let’s take Facebook, for example, the site is free for all without having to pay for anything in return for
the service they give; also, the company has invested millions of dollars into developing the site and
continue it going. They give you their service for free so that they can monitor you and your activities on
their site. You are technically explaining Facebook everything about yourself and in that way, Facebook
is creating a rundown on you, which becomes invaluable for advertising.

The entire business model of Google and Facebook is based on selling ads; the more accurately they can
target an ad, the more they can charge for it. They use all the data they can get from their "users" (the
"users" are actually the product they're selling) to provide increasingly more accurate and targeted
advertising to their actual customers (the advertisers). They're the ones most directly exploiting user
data.

Although, this might be true for many companies that provide their services for free, the same cannot
be said for all of them. Amazon is in the middle; their primary business is (now) providing web
hosting/computing/data center services, and retail order fulfillment, but they use user data to target
their retail side to increase the likelihood that people will see (and then buy) stuff they like. They also
sell advertising (sponsored items) and can use user data to target that advertising.

Apple & Microsoft are the least user-data-driven. Apple's primary product is hardware and integrated
software, they make a point of not using user data for much. Microsoft's primary product is software;
some of their subunits use user data to upsell (mostly on the gaming side) but it's not a primary part of
their business.

While ostensibly obscured, although also maybe not, the things of value about you in your profile and
content are collected and provided to their clients for profit. The fact that you may like dogs or cars or
watches can steer advertising for those products your way. That you post or like or comment on politics
or religion or movie opinions can also lead paid content your way.

Your preferences and content lead to abilities to advertise precisely. You get social media and web tools
for free with advertising and sponsored content paying the way. You are broken down into algorithmic
data, and that data drives advertising and content to you. That content being money to the service, and
the service content or tools bring you.

Hence, in conclusion, big digital corporations such as Facebook and Google take advantage of their users
and use their data to mine and earn money. When one is using a service that such corporations are
providing for ‘free’, they are paying it with their own valuable information. Then, as a result, such
corporations collect their data, generate intelligence, and sell them to some third party. It is basically
like giving somebody to look inside your mind and letting them predict everything you do. The saying
goes “if the product is free, you’re the product” is not false.