How free are those free services?

For those of you who follow me on this blog and on FaceBook, you know that I spend most of my posting time on FaceBook. It is so easy to just drop in a quick post and be done. It can be something as  Innocuous as a video of my ride through the park on my new e-bike or thought provoking as some “thought for the day”. Whatever it is, I don’t feel the need to fill a page by any means.  This blog, on the other hand, requires more thought and consideration.  Where Facebook is like a neighborhood chat, a true website is more publicly distributed.  I can also see more about how many view the articles and pictures.

It is said that if you think you are getting a product or service free, you are the product. In the case of FB, the posters get readers and the readers  become customers for the multitude of adds placed by FB on the pages.  So, in reality, as a FB participant, you provide FB with prospective customers and FB provides you with a platform to interact with your friends.  That part is OK but they also collect information about you and your friends and sell that information to third parties.  I’m not too keen on that.  They are certainly not alone there.

Google that google this. What a great free service Google is. Why are they doing this nice service for us free?  Every time, you google something, you are telling them what you want.  You tell them what interests you. You tell them where you eat, where you go on vacation. You are telling them your sexual preferences, and your medical needs.  If some unknown person came to your door and asked you all these questions, you would be ready to call the police but you give google ALL your secrets.  How will that information be used to benefit Google and the clients it sells the data to.  Once they know how you think, they know how to push your buttons to get you to buy something, vote for someone, or send you email or FB posts to use your weaknesses to pull you in to their way of thinking.  You are being played and don’t even know it.

Studying the way the mind thinks, counselors can be used to help you through troubling times. This same information, used improperly,  can be used to control the way you think.  It is a little like personal propaganda where those wanting to control you, can exploit your negative characteristics for their own gain. Groups of similar thinking people can be played like puppets on a string.

Think about recent decisions you have made recently.  How many of those decisions have had external influences?