In light of the NSA and GCHQ controversy our data foot print has probably never kicked up the kind of debate as is currently the case. Leaving Governments out of the equation, and speaking in broader terms I would personally favour being given the option to pay say 10 USD per month to use a completely ad free and tracking free Google. In a research I led, we discovered that the practice of personalised searches based on cookies, IP address and search history drastically skewed the results individual users received when using the same search query, in some cases resulting in pages that were loaded towards a users beliefs. A crude example would be a conspiracy theorist, when using google to search for the latest news, is presented with news stories that support their viewpoints, for example when searching for Sandy Hook, results that included frankly rather delusional points of view came in at or above more main stream pages about the story. The result of the research suggested that this kind of unorganic manipulation of search listing was tantamount to censorship through the back door (There is much more to this but unfortunately I can't use direct quotes as I am not IP holder of the document.)
What about Facebook? Leading thinkers say the reason it is free is that you would not charge a lamb to be made into chops. Even while creating a profile and setting the privacy options responsibly, all data - including photos and associated data are harvested, even when you have not tagged or de tagged your self. The reason there is not a dislike button is that it makes no sense, and is possibly commercial suicide from a marketing point of view. So your left with this bizarre situation where someone says "My Granny has just died. RIP :'( " and underneath? " You and 10 others like this" call me old fashioned but that is not very sensitive. If say you paid 10USD per month for example you could have negative equivalents to "Like" and it would not adversely affect a products marketing.
My brother's company made a popular app called Ready Steady Bang [http://rsbang.com] which sold for 0.69GBP on iTunes, however on the Google App store it was far more profitable to give the App away free and earn money from advertising, indeed developers are positively encouraged by Google to do so.
In conclusion your personal details are worth their weight in gold. But would you appreciate the option of not having someone metaphorically watching through the bathroom keyhole whilst you take a shower?
PS I have a paid account with the Escapist and appreciate it greatly!
What about Facebook? Leading thinkers say the reason it is free is that you would not charge a lamb to be made into chops. Even while creating a profile and setting the privacy options responsibly, all data - including photos and associated data are harvested, even when you have not tagged or de tagged your self. The reason there is not a dislike button is that it makes no sense, and is possibly commercial suicide from a marketing point of view. So your left with this bizarre situation where someone says "My Granny has just died. RIP :'( " and underneath? " You and 10 others like this" call me old fashioned but that is not very sensitive. If say you paid 10USD per month for example you could have negative equivalents to "Like" and it would not adversely affect a products marketing.
My brother's company made a popular app called Ready Steady Bang [http://rsbang.com] which sold for 0.69GBP on iTunes, however on the Google App store it was far more profitable to give the App away free and earn money from advertising, indeed developers are positively encouraged by Google to do so.
In conclusion your personal details are worth their weight in gold. But would you appreciate the option of not having someone metaphorically watching through the bathroom keyhole whilst you take a shower?
PS I have a paid account with the Escapist and appreciate it greatly!
