Disaster is free, do you want it? No, we don’t want everything that is Free, perhaps when we have a good understanding of it.
How can anything be Free, with no strings attached? Free is a mask. Free is a blanket. Free is dangerous. Free means the cost is hidden, or there is side-effect. It means there is room for making money! Because nothing can be free. In fact, if we see something is Free, we have to be more cautious, since “Free” blinds our mind.
Nothing is Free – not even air. We pay millions for air through money collected by companies and taxes, under the umbrella of safeguarding the environment, protecting nature, and reducing air pollution.
Would we have paid even a dime for the air we need to breathe, if we were asked directly? Would we have even found it acceptable? Definitely not.
The case with facebook account, gmail, yahoo, or hotmail email account, or any other “presumably” free services is the same and in fact even worse. Not only are these companies making billions of money (did you know facebook could be worth $100 billion and in other words, its users have given it 384 thousand Lamborghinis worth of income), they are also getting our time, life, and data – which we would have never given away if it were up to us!
Think of the ads you see on facebook, think of the permissions that applications get from you, think of the gmail ads containing the keywords in the email you are viewing, think of all the companies and sources who may be aggregating data about you. Can you think of how many they are? Do you know who they are? Any idea what exactly they know about you? Unfortunately not. They know much more than we think they do.
One piece of information may not be much by itself, but hundred pieces of information put together about one subject (you) could be a lot. (bbc) [let alone that in some cases hundred is given out in only one day] Now what if you consider the possibility of the lack of data security? Nothing is secure. Nothing can be said to be absolutely secure. Do you see the extent to which it goes?
Do these companies take any responsibility if data was lost or misused? Take a look at the terms of services (especially the last sections, in ALL CAPS) which we all agree to.
Free is Expensive. It’s costly. We pay for the price of free through indirect ways of making money, and in addition, by giving up our time, and the opportunities of making money to improve the quality of our life and those around us, and data we may not be likely to share with others – at least not with strangers.
What is the reason then? Why are people ok with this, but not a low subscription fee? What if facebook membership was $1/month, but instead there would not have been any ads or selling of your information to unknown third party companies? After all, people are not attracted to everything that is free.
We should come to terms with nothing being Free, and until we don’t, we’ll be taken advantage of.
Free is more expensive than we think. Dangers of Free
Bottom line: “If you are a business or individual who can afford to give things away for Free, go ahead. If you are a consumer, Beware.”
Thanks. Very eye opening. Such a great article for people to learn they need to pay for the service they get anyways. They either pay a specific amount of money in which they agree to, or they will pay in other ways that they would never know….. But knowing all these, I think people again want free stuff. I guess the next step is to see why it is easier to BUY free stuff more expensive than buy them with a little charge of even $1. I guess we are lazy people. Paying money needs to put our hands in our pocket. Getting free stuff puts business’s hands in our pocket and they take out the money for us!!!!
Have you read Chris Andersen’s “Free” ?
Anyway, from my personal observation people are OK with free but not low subscription because of the friction it causes in the buying process. A lot of digital content and cutting edge information is highly valuable but people who haven’t completely transitioned from the world of atoms to the world of bits have trust barriers in their perception of the value of intangibles.
Free can also be used in a good way – to upsell. With new intangibles it takes time for people to understand the value and how it can be monetized or at least save them money. By giving away valuable information we build trust and people’s appetite for something they’re completely new to but realize is what they need. :)
I can’t disagree more with Chris Andersen’s “Free” and I have a post about that underway. Thanks for your comment : )