Petabytes of data are generated regularly. Do you know, who generates them? It is we, who generate such a huge amount of data. Those data, are some way or the other helping the internet to become a better place. We use a number of free services. Yes, Google, Facebook, and different other services are some of them. They are completely free to use. But there is a saying. When we are getting a product or service for free, we ourselves are actually the product. This fact is true. Actually the data, we generate on the free platforms, are analyzed. After analyzing, the data become helpful for some companies, and those companies use the data to improve their services. Yes, this is the way, how the ecosystem of free platforms works.
From YouTube video suggestions and Facebook friend suggestions to the advertisements, we see on different websites. All such things are possible because of the data, which we share, in some way or the other, to free platforms. Yes, you might say, it is a privacy breach. It is true to some extent. But no, not completely. The data, which we are sharing, are shared for our good. As long as the data is used for our good, I will not consider it to be a complete breach of privacy. Thus, being a product is not always bad. Let’s now find out, why being a product is not bad. Or the ways, it eventually becomes helpful for us. The other way round.
Getting advertisements for products and services
You must have seen a number of advertisements on various websites after searching for your favorite product. It is caused by the cookies storing information about your search history and analyzing data generated by you. It is only possible by collecting a little amount of your data. You can get the products at even cheaper prices, which will always be beneficial for you. Thus, it is one of the biggest advantages of us being the product.
Getting movie and entertainment suggestions
You might be interested in a certain genre of music or movies. You can also be interested in some other entertainment element. Data about your likes and dislikes can also be collected to recommend you the most entertaining elements for you. No longer watching the movie trailers to find out which one is appropriate for your taste buds. The websites after collecting data can recommend the most appropriate entertainment element or movies for you.
It can also help you to grab your next copy of your favorite gaming title, depending on your likes.
Contributing to big data
Big data is all about collecting data about you and use it for something good. When you are using some free service and be the product, you are actually contributing to big data. The data is then analyzed and is used for marketing, healthcare, traffic management and for solving a number of other problems. It can eventually help you and the mankind to get a better Internet along with a plethora of other advantages. You can read more about the way big data can change our lives, here.
Yes, being a product is not bad. Hope the facts are clear to you, from this article. But yes, you should be careful, as well. We all have the habit of sharing a lot of information on different free platforms. I will not recommend doing that. Yes, nobody actually knows, what the other things are, the companies might be doing with your data, behind the scenes. Hope you all know about the Facebook data leak scandal. Using free services in a constructive way can help you get the best out of it. Yes, even by being a product, meant to be sold.
Hope the information was helpful for you. What is your view about the topic? Let me know about it in the comment section down below.
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