The true cost of "FREE"

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Some people say "if it's free, who cares?" However, today "free" is too high a price for some costs we have in the day and age of DATA.

We have found ourselves counting costs in terms of money and time because of how empiric that is and has been... But now we see how everyday the age of information and social media has costs that we are learning to value and truly realize the cost: of privacy and most recently of data, OUR data. Once upon a time, people who did not have credit cards or that covered their computer camera were weird. Then we thought oddly about those who did not have a smartphone, or what about those weirdos that do not have social media. 

You REALLY don't have facebook? - Is probably a question that you have commonly heard... But most recently people have realized that there is NOTHING that is for free:
Credit cards means your purchasing habits and even "weaknesses" are known. Web cameras are completely an open door for anyone for enough time to hack into. Smartphones can locate you and get to know your habits outside of spending, your hobbies, you, your friends and family members whereabouts... And most recently Googling and social media have provided the "free" possibility of us facilitating the details to our life, who we spend time with, where and how. You google what you need, you upload what you love, you tweet what you love and what you hate... You get the deal.

WE have got to understand that privacy, technology, data, time and money all interact in our lives everyday, they never where and never will be separate. Companies that dedicate their daily routines to providing a service have to cover the cost of providing it. 

Did you think it was free to connect the 2billion users that facebook has? Or to provide the search results of 40,000 google searches PER SECOND?! Exactly what part of the 300,000 tweets per minute are completely cost-free?

You get the point I hope... Because last year I felt like people started to value their privacy online and 2018 seems to begin to be the year when we value what and how our data is being mined. 

If you have been living under a rock I will explain myself: last year the FBI and Apple had a nice and public debate on the need of a "back-door" to enter your smartphone in cases of emergency, to which Apple disagreed because creating a key to your privacy does not ensure that key will be used for the right reasons every time. Overreacting? Well, that's entirely up to your point of view but there are valid points on both sides... Then we get to this nice and beautiful year with the amazing Facebook scandal where it has taken then YEARS to admit that they knew about the data exploit of more than 50 MILLION of its users.

I believe it is time to realize that sometimes we buy the product, but other times, WE ARE the product. Free is not the right price... And to decide what we share to the world and what we keep for our circles we need to become awake to the truth:

When YOU are the product, YOU should take charge
YOU should be well informed about what and how you put YOUR LIFE on the web
Do not allow the "free" to be taken form your freedom.

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