Tech companies began making money from their ability to map out and organize information. At the core of this model was an essential asymmetry in knowledge—the machines knew a lot about our behavior, but we knew very little about theirs. In a trade-off for convenience, these companies offered people information services in exchange for more information—data. The data has become more and more valuable, with Facebook making on average $30 from each of its 170 million American users. At the same time, we have fallen for the idea that these services are “free.” In reality, we pay with our data
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