Why 'free' platforms extract behavioral data — and how prediction products are sold.
When a product is free, your behavior is frequently the product. Zuboff's thesis describes a model in which human experience is captured as behavioral data, refined into predictions about what you will do, and sold in markets for influence. Whether or not one accepts every claim of her framing, the underlying mechanics — pervasive tracking, data brokerage, and behavioral targeting — are documented and reshape incentives across the web. The literacy move is to notice the exchange you are actually making and to decide, deliberately, what you are willing to trade.
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