• ISOmorph ( ISOmorph@feddit.de ) 
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    3 years ago

    In other news, water is wet. Honestly though, people expecting “free” services from big corpos are naive. What do they expect the servers and admins/devs are payed with?

    • Greg Clarke ( Greg@lemmy.ca ) 
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      3 years ago

      Gmail was initially advertising funded while respecting privacy. It’s a false dichotomy to argue that a service can’t have a free privacy respecting offering. We’ve just become accustomed to accepting targeted advertising as the norm.

      • ISOmorph ( ISOmorph@feddit.de ) 
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        3 years ago

        It’s a false dichotomy to argue that a service can’t have a free privacy respecting offering.

        I don’t believe anyone is arguing that it’s technically impossible. But reality is pretty clear that it’s implausible. Targeted ads reel in too much money.

        I think the real fallacy is getting used to services being free at all. You need to pay a monthly fee for basically every utility, but as soon as it’s in the digital world people expect that to change. What makes a search engine or mail provider so much different than your ISP or cable provider? You want competent services that respect your privacy? Pay for alternatives like Kagi and Proton.