We, as consumers of the internet, often take for granted the breadth of information and services available for free on the internet. We pay some (hopefully) fixed rate per month and, suddenly, have access to all the world's knowledge. This service has allowed us to become more informed, and more connected, than ever before in our history. But, as it turns out, this information is not strictly free. The, now thoroughly crispy, meme "if you're not paying for it, you're not the customer; you're the product" definitely has some hints of truth in it. Very few people make things that people access for free. After all, there are a variety of expenses one must go through to host e-content and, as the demand increases, the costs also explode. So, these providers capitalize on the one resource available to them, our data.
This process of data-collection, I think, is completely within the right of the e-provider. If you are using their service, they should have access to, within the bounds of their service, the data you generate. The problem arises when these content generators do not inform the content users of the extent of the data collection. This is it is extremely easy for a company's data collection to become unethical. Like I said, a provider should have access to the data you generate on their service. But when, for example, Facebook starts to track your location while the app is open so that it can give you ads about things in your area, Facebook has clearly overstepped the tacit agreement between user and provider. I believe it is the company's responsibility to let the user know when they attempt to gather data about them outside the normal bounds of operation of the service. When I use Facebook, I assume that they are collecting everything I type, looking at what I 'Like', and seeing where I check-in. This data is fair use for them, because I gave it to them through use of their service. But, if they want to track my location in real time, this is them spying on me, rather than me voluntarily giving them the information.
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