User as Consumer? Nah, it is User as Product

Well, let’s take a look at the past. For many years, we live in the world where company sells the products and we as the user being the consumer. It just how the world goes. No matter what kind of product it is, whether it is in form of items or even a service, we became the consumer of the product. It happens too in the ICT world.

However, looks like our world balance has been slightly tilted a bit. What do we call people who use a product? OK, i call it as consumer. But what if the user become product? WHAT IF?

It is the real thing.Lets review about softwares. We bought Windows, Ms Office, MacOS, Android for our enjoyment and pleasure, right? We consume the product in a form of software’s services. However, since the global ICT world shows a different approach of service, we now know that most of the internet services is free of charge. Most of this services get their own revenue from advertisement. That’s okay, since most people (including myself like the free of charge things, especially in Indonesia)

Okay, but currently, these free of charge services use our own User Generated Content as the way to make money.

The most obvious one is Facebook. It is free, but have you ever thought thoroughly that we are being the product that Facebook sells. We join FB, and agree to the terms and condition that everything which is uploaded, stored, or shared to facebook will be Facebook’s property.It means that our own things (photos, videos, accounts) is what Facebook sells to another. Maybe many web using Facebook login as their own mechanism to simplify account registration (such as the phenomenal 9gag). In reality, Facebook has just sold us to 9gag.

The other one is Google. You know that since Google acquired Youtube and Picassa, they started to organize every account neatly. Is it problem? YES, IT IS. It surely infringe the rule of anonymousity in internet world. Most of us highly apreciate the anonymousity of internet. But, what if everything is so organized that Google can do profiling about us, who am I, what I usually do, what do I like to eat, read, go and so on. It just make the advertisement company easier to track us, who I really am.

Yeah, we live in the ear where we are the products which is sold by them. With this post also shared in facebook, I also agree that I’ve become one of the product that internet services sell… However, to you anyone who read, please remind yourself to restrain from doing anything weird in the internet, since eveything is so opened to public.