What a tragedy: Ello, the”Facebook Killer,” is receiving VC funding and has a plan in place to monetize its users. (Or, as they say in the industry, “sell eyeballs”). How dare they offer a free service then profit from our demographic information? Why must venture capitalists stick their talons in our social networks? What ever happened to our PRIVACY!!!
As both Karl Marx and Adam Smith will tell you, economics is everything. Buying the servers required to house a big social network costs money. Keeping them powered up, cooling them down, giving them the bandwidth necessary to handle requests without lag, hiring personnel who can maintain the hardware and software—none of this is free and much of it is very expensive indeed. Somebody has to pony up the funds, and if you don’t want to pay out of pocket then somebody else will have to serve as benefactor.
Lots of people will say nice things about online privacy and why it’s important. Ask yourself what they’re selling, then ask who is paying for the service. Generally you’ll find that if you’re not the customer, you’re the product. You’ll also find that no amount of “privacy protection” on someone else’s part will substitute for a modicum of common sense on yours.
—Warlock Kenaz Filan
