Facebook is a great example: the utility of Facebook is directly correlated with how many people you know who are also using Facebook, and the only way to maximize that number is to make the service free, supported by advertising. Google is in a similar boat: the efficacy of search is in many ways tied to how many people are using search. Queries and clicks are the raw grist for Google improving its algorithm, and the more the better, which means making queries free.

Il modello di business — da molti criticato — di Facebook e Google di dare via i propri servizi gratuitamente per così affidarsi alla pubblicità per i ricavi, è in realtà necessario per molti degli strumenti a cui ci affidiamo che non potrebbero funzionare altrimenti.

Purtroppo è un modello di business che torna a nostro vantaggio in molte situazioni, ma comporta anche una perdita: la nostra privacy.

The net result is an iron circle in which advertisers pay free apps and sites, who in turn provide significant benefit to consumers, who in exchange surrender targeting info about their demographics and preferences: you cannot take away any one of these components without taking away all of them. Unless we as a society are willing to give up all of the benefits provided by search, social networks, and the free dissemination of information, then we will give up our privacy.