The Illusion of Free Services
For years, businesses have made us believe that we are the most important people to them. We have been told “the customer is always right” and “your satisfaction is what matters to us” to make us feel like we matter even more than the business itself. These slogans sound sweet, but the truth is that no business exists without making profit at its core of goals. Your importance ends where their ability to make money from you ends.
It is not different in the technology world. We are given “free” things; free email accounts, free social media, free cloud storage, free Wi-Fi at certain restaurants, even free mobile apps. We sign up thinking these companies are privileged to have us, carrying the cost out of generosity. But the uncomfortable truth is that you are only as important as the value they can squeeze out of you.
The reason these services feel free is because you are not paying in shillings. You are paying with something much more personal; your data, your attention, your behaviour. Every click, every like, every photo upload, and every Google search tells a story about you. And that story is worth money.
Right here in Uganda, examples are everywhere. When you use that “free” Wi-Fi at the cafe in Kampala, your browsing patterns can be tracked and linked to your phone’s unique ID. When you signed up for a social media account, you agreed (probably without reading the terms) that your activity can be monitored and used for targeted ads. Even big names like Gmail have, in the past, scanned emails to target advertising. Facebook tracks your movements online, even when you’re not on Facebook. Some “free” VPN apps have been caught selling browsing history to advertisers.
And it’s not just private companies. Governments are also in the game. NIRA’s mass collection of biometric data; your fingerprints, facial scans, and other personal details is said to be for national identification and service delivery. But in the wrong hands, such data could be used for surveillance,
It is not different in the technology world. We are given “free” things; free email accounts, free social media, free cloud storage, free Wi-Fi at certain restaurants, even free mobile apps. We sign up thinking these companies are privileged to have us, carrying the cost out of generosity. But the uncomfortable truth is that you are only as important as the value they can squeeze out of you.
The reason these services feel free is because you are not paying in shillings. You are paying with something much more personal; your data, your attention, your behaviour. Every click, every like, every photo upload, and every Google search tells a story about you. And that story is worth money.
Right here in Uganda, examples are everywhere. When you use that “free” Wi-Fi at the cafe in Kampala, your browsing patterns can be tracked and linked to your phone’s unique ID. When you signed up for a social media account, you agreed (probably without reading the terms) that your activity can be monitored and used for targeted ads. Even big names like Gmail have, in the past, scanned emails to target advertising. Facebook tracks your movements online, even when you’re not on Facebook. Some “free” VPN apps have been caught selling browsing history to advertisers.
And it’s not just private companies. Governments are also in the game. NIRA’s mass collection of biometric data; your fingerprints, facial scans, and other personal details is said to be for national identification and service delivery. But in the wrong hands, such data could be used for surveillance,
