• village604@adultswim.fan
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 day ago

    No, you’re inferring that I’m talking about small business by mistaking my analogy.

    My point was that providing a service free of charge means the company pays the costs of the service. Some companies offset this by collecting data and providing ads.

    You’re free to not use services that use this business model.

    • harmbugler@piefed.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      18 minutes ago

      My original point included companies that provide us with nothing. I haven’t been a customer of Origin Energy in four years, but they still had sensitive data that recently got breached. Why are they allowed to keep that apparently valuable data for free?

    • gnufuu@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      20 hours ago

      You’re free to not use services that use this business model.

      Let’s not act as if this prevents them from collecting my data anyway.

      My point was that providing a service free of charge means the company pays the costs of the service. Some companies offset this by collecting data and providing ads.

      So you agree that these companies earn money despite me not paying them a subscription. Going back to my initial point: Do they lose money if I use their service without paying for it? Answer: No, they don’t. Wasn’t so hard, was it?

        • gnufuu@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          5 hours ago

          If I were to state the obvious and acknowledge that running a website costs money, would you in return stop dodging my initial point too?

          • village604@adultswim.fan
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            4 hours ago

            I’m not dodging your initial point. Companies compensate you for the data and advertising with free access to the website. The money they earn this way is used to pay for the service they’re providing.

            That’s why them paying you a subscription for the data isn’t a thing. You’ve already agreed to the trade.

            • gnufuu@lemmy.ca
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              3 hours ago

              Great, we agree that these companies aren’t profiting off of monthly subscriptions but data collection instead. Allow me to rewind:

              @harmbugler@piefed.social said:

              How about companies have to pay a monthly subscription fee for our data.

              A funny comment implying the companies are making unfairly high profits off of their users’ data. Your reply:

              They do if you’re using their service without paying for it.

              You strike me as someone who understands that it’s impossible to use such services without paying with data. So an appropriate response would be “No, they don’t”. Agreed?