Free Is Evil
medium.comThat innocent google search box is feeling evil. I like to think of UI as obstacle, in the way of the thing you are trying to get to. Ideally it shouldn't exist. In any case, we approach UIs with endurance in mind and our desire to outsource hard things leaves a large gap for exploitation.
The solution supposed here reminds me of the idea that everything in commerce is either a bundling or unbundling. Counter UIs you pay to bundle interactions with abusive UIs will save us! I don't think so, sounds like an escalation of hostilities is brewing to the point where you will be too far removed to tell the difference between good or evil UI. You'll just be paying to feel and signal you're free from evil's influence.
Interesting. Today's solutions always become tomorrow's problems. Thanks for raising some potential issues.
Nice view presented. I ike the sentence “Selling human behavior to the highest bidder is the business model.‘. I think openness is key for freedom. The title is a click bait imho, free is not evil, unless you are using a product or service and you pay with your privacy. This article should not be published on medium if you live by your own talk.
Thanks for the compliments! I pay Medium an annual fee as a reader, that is how they pay the bills. I think it's a pretty honest place to publish.
Paying doesn't make you immune to surveillance, behavioral profiling, tracking, ads etc. Businesses will tell you that by doing all this crap they can offer you a discount.
This "if you're not paying, you the product" served us well but it's not accurate any more.
I guess it's more precise to say if anyone else is paying any of the cost, you're not really the customer. You're right that there are situations where the consumer pays (say, for a smartphone) and companies pay to have bloatware installed that tries to manipulate and monetize the device owner.