What's more important to you a free internet or your Internet privacy?
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
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
You're confusing Internet with services on the Internet. Social media is not the Internet. The Internet exists without Facebook, Xitter and other social media sites.
This could also refer to some ISPs that give free internet or cheap internet paid by ads, if such a thing exists already(if not it will be a thing in a few years)
It’s no secret that we trade our information for access to the Internet.
You tell me. I had this odd idea that I was already paying a monthly sub to access the Web and then, on top of that, corporations suddenly deciding it was their natural right to suck our data without our consent.
You are paying for the physical infrastructure. Your ISP connects the physical cables to your house/apartment that allow you to access the Internet. Google Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari..... Are the digital portals to the web and search engines let you "serf" the web. We only pay for 1 service the physical. If we banned data we'd pay for at least 2 if not all 3 plus individual sites
The internet existed before you had to pay for everything. You paid your ISP for internet access, they maintained their peer connection, and provided you email. Colleges and individuals provided chat and group forums.
We're on a social platform right now that can run almost for free. For a pittance, you can bring a tunnel into your house and easily host open source social networks for your friends and family.
Capitalism is driving all of these companies to try to get you to buy into everything. They're selling advertising to each other which is pushing them to gather as much of your data as possible in this awful feedback loop where you are the product. We don't need to be in any of those loops, We need to provide for ourselves in this companies can just go away.
This is called false dichotomy or false dilemma. It is setting arbitrary limits on the available options to force the person asked into specific behaviora, either to agree to the asking party's terms or make themselves vulnerable to moral attacks and ridicule.
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.
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.
The internet is what you get via your ISP. You're talking about www which is part of the internet but not the internet itself. There are plenty of things to do on the internet that aren't www e.g. email works over the internet and I'm not talking about something like gmail but the communication between email servers and between your email provider and you when you use imap or pop3.
I don't mind paying. In fact I do that to keep my privacy by hosting most of my social media myself instead of using big corps social media and other services like immich, ollama, home assistant, Firefox sync, ttrss, and many more.
I'm not only paying for the hardware but also with a lot of time to host and keep everything up.