It’s no secret that we trade our information for access to the Internet. So what do you prefer a subscription based Internet with privacy protection or a free internet with companies allowed to take and sell your data

      • Sackeshi@lemmy.worldOP
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        9 months ago

        It’s not a false dichotomy, the companies that give us access to the Internet like Google need to make money in one way or another, they sell our user data to other companies which then give targeted ads to us. If we banned the use of user data it would require a monthly subscription

        • atrielienz@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          ISP’s give us access to the Internet. And we pay them for it. Google makes money via ad aggregation. We already know they were able to do this without siphoning up all your data because they literally made money doing it before 2004 when they launched Gmail. What you’re talking about already exists though. User subscriptions for Email, VPN’s, Search Engines etc already exist and people are using them. People are paying for them.

          People also generally understand that if they aren’t paying for a service then they are the product. The thing is though, lots of those people are fine with ads so long as the ads don’t get in the way of them enjoying the product. If I open a website they don’t need to have a full page ad open up when the site page loads. But they do that anyway and that’s what people are largely pushing back against.

          Additionally, if these companies want our data? They should do a much better job of safeguarding it, or be held responsible in a meaningful way.

        • rnercle@sh.itjust.works
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          9 months ago

          internets were there before Google. I’m sure there are many people on lemmy who remember google as a new search engine they tried.

          internet would be different, like it was different, if these hogs like google and facebook are banned from collecting and selling user data. Fuck surveillance capitalism. (fuck capitalism while you’re at it)

        • Libra00@lemmy.ml
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          9 months ago

          Do they need to? I don’t think they do. They exist to make money so I get that they want to, and they’re pretty good at it, but they could try not exploiting people for profit. But the idea that ‘it exists therefore anything is justified in order to make a profit’ is absurd.

  • gomp@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    It’s no secret that we trade our information for access to the Internet.

    I pay a monthly subscription for access to the Internet (actually two: one for the landline and one for my phone).

    So what do you prefer a subscription based Internet with privacy protection or a free internet with companies allowed to take and sell your data

    Either one would be better than what we have now, which is not free and not private.

  • Kookie215@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    We get the worst of both worlds here, we pay for our data to be taken so they can sell it. If they’re going to sell my data either way, I would prefer it to be free to use the internet at least.

    • Sackeshi@lemmy.worldOP
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      9 months ago

      We pay an ISP because they have to maintenance on a massive physical structure to keep running properly. We do not pay for the Internet, some websites charge money but Google and the general web is free to use.

      • Kami@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        9 months ago

        Bro you don’t need to pay to use the internet and even if you pay Google they will steal your data, so what’s your point here?