When people hear the word "free," they don't often stop and consider the cost. If something is free, there's no cost attached, right? Wrong. Someone, somewhere, has to pay for whatever it is that is "free" and costless to you. That's especially true in the world of the web.
How does Google and Facebook make all their money? People say that these are huge, profitable companies, but since us, the consumers, aren't paying for the services then we don't really concern ourselves with how the companies are getting the money. The way they get their profits is by selling our information. Not our personal information usually like SSN, address, name, etc, but our likes and dislikes. They sell ads that are specific to the things that we search for or "like."
Do you ever wonder why when you search for something on Google, an ad comes up that is advertising something related to the search topic? Well that's how Google is getting its money. That is our "price" for these "free" services. Is that something that we as consumers are okay with? Are we willing for these sites to track our interests just so we don't have to pay money for the service? How free are these free services?
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