Android exists only to harvest your personal data for Google to then sell you advertising and sell your data to other companies, not a trustworthy platform imo.
PS, companies don’t invest billions of dollars in software development and then give the product away for free unless they are going to profit some other way.
Again, nope.
Agree.
Think of your data as a pile of gold, and Google is the dragon laying in top of it.
They want to horde the data to monetize it themselves, not sell/give it to others - just like the dragon with his gold. 
I agree there’s a big difference between selling personal information and collecting it so that it can be analyzed and monetized by serving as a broker between consumers and app developers, web developers, advertisers, etc.
However, isn’t it still accurate to say we’re the product in both cases?
Google gives away some services to consumers for free, because in the end they can make way more money by collecting and analyzing the information customers agree to give up as a condition of using the free service.
In a secondary way, maybe. I guess it depends on how you look at it. A product to me is the thing that is being sold. I wouldn't think of it as "I'm buying a chip" when I buy a phone. In the same way, Google is building their advertising product with consumer data as a component, but it's not the end product. Using that line obscures that fact and leads to the uninformed to believe that our data is being sold.
It's pedantic, but affects perception in a large way.
Edit: Using a physical product as an example probably wasn't the best way to go... oh well. You get the picture.
Every time you use a free online service YOU ARE the product.
See what I mean about pointless arguments?
Flat Wrong!
Google monetizes what it observes about people in two major ways:
- It uses data to build individual profiles with demographics and interests, then lets advertisers target groups of people based on those traits.
- It shares data with advertisers directly and asks them to bid on individual ads.
The second method of monetization involves most of the behaviors that regular people might think of as “selling data.” Google is involved at nearly every level of the complex, automated process of third-party ad placement known as “real-time bidding,” or RTB.
Real-time bidding is the process by which publishers auction off ad space in their apps or on their websites. In doing so, they share sensitive user data—including geolocation, device IDs, identifying cookies, and browsing history—with dozens or hundreds of different adtech companies.
On your phone
AdMob is a mobile supply-side platform. That means the company creates tools, called Software Development Kits (SDKs), that developers build into their apps. AdMob partners with ad exchanges, and its SDKs connect apps to the exchanges directly. Inside an app, AdMob code collects information and shares it with Google and other exchanges through processes called “open bidding” and “mediation.” Your phone shares data, including your device ID and geolocation data, with Google and with other ad exchanges; the app serves you an ad; Google and the developer get paid.
Beyond RTB: customer data files
RTB isn’t the only way Google shares data with advertisers (or anyone else with money). Google also allows its advertiser customers to target users by name, email, or device ID and reach them almost anywhere. Through its “Customer Match” program, advertisers can upload lists of users they want to reach, and Google will serve them ads in exchange for money.
tie my data back to me. I'll wait.
Edit: I take that back. I'm not going to wait. Already said I'm not going to get into it. This marks the last post I'm making here.
Download the Hubitat app
