A New York Times article complains about “surveillance capitalism” ? ?by re-repeating the usual “crying wolf ” lines: Facebook and Google surveil us, our behaviour is analyzed way more than “just” for marketing purposes, insurance companies might want to access our information and so on…
This article seems to support mantra such as ? “information are the new gold”, “Information are the new crude” that keeps resonating in social network platform, digital world (self-professed) “experts” and traditional media.
But is this a correct assumption?Maybe I put it in a much to simplistic way, but since I’m a firm believer in the “Ain’t no such thing as a free lunch” creed, there must always be a bill to pay either with your monies or with yourself.
In the past, restaurants used to have pennyless patrons to repay their lunch by cleaning dishes, pots and plates.
Today, the “free lunch” is paid in information.
People can’t keep the cake and eat it. If they want “free” service they can’t complain about surveillance. But since people value money more than information, they are happy to exchange the latters with services and keep the monies in their pocket.
Therefore, no, information are neither the new “gold” nor “crude”. Money is, still, king.