Comment on Thanks to OpenAI, it's never been clearer that Sundar Pichai is Google's Steve Ballmer
relic_@lemm.ee 4 months agoIf you’re not paying for a service, then you’re the product.
It should be noted, though, that the “if you aren’t paying, you’re the product” mantra isn’t always true. FOSS exists.
And I know that seems obvious to anybody reading this on Lemmy, but I’ve had people refuse to use good open source software because they fundamentally refuse to trust something being provided to them for free.
That applies to the software itself, sure, but only if you bring your own infrastructure. Large scale FOSS infrastructure services are going to be the exception not the norm.
WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 4 months ago
This saying is actually horseshit, though. The profit motive and infinite growth model of capitalism guarantees that even if you are paying for a product, your data and attention — everything that can be — will be monetized eventually.
The saying should be “if the service isn’t open-source and E2E encrypted, you’re the product”
relic_@lemm.ee 4 months ago
Nah I’d disagree. Infinite growth motive doesn’t necessarily apply to private companies. To suggest there’s unbridled greed present in every company is just a falsehood.