“If it’s free, you aren’t the customer... you are the product.”
I’ve seen this quote on a cartoon showing two barn pigs, one telling the other, that the food is good and plentiful.
Same applies to social media.
That is exactly what I thought with the whole nonsense where we were basically giving free laptops to Africans (TV commercials said if you bought a laptop they’d send another to someone in Africa - basically you were buying TWO laptops). Years ago I saw a discussion about TV (on TV, nonetheless) where a guy was describing how while many people thought the cars, food, etc. on TV were the product being sold, in fact it was the viewers who were being sold (to the advertisers, who paid dearly for the privilege). Changed how I viewed things...