"If you're not paying, you're the product" goes literal

"If you're not paying, you're the product!"

A truthful, but often tired saying that is well-known among privacy advocates and mindlessly dismissed by the consumer class with a "yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever..."

It's not "literally," they say, that this saying works, though. You're not literally the product being sold around or traded for money, they say. And while there might be some truth to this argument, it looks like India and a few other countries are taking the first steps towards making sure that quote safely jumps from metaphor to reality:

Loans that hijack your phone are coming to India

Granted, this is not the first of its kind either - since last year, at least Google also deployed this sort of legal ransomware to the market. But as the article details, we can see that their tactics are getting more and more personal every day.

Extra creepy credit for this quote by the guy who did this, which essentially explains why do we still allow this thing to continue regardless:

“We did some research and figured out, You know what? People really still want to buy a phone,” Juriasingani told Rest of World, explaining the genesis of his company.

So there you have it. In the eyes of the people: "Cash or credit?" "Privacy." Don't fall for this sort of trap when it comes to your corner of the world. Fight the dependence on technology that doesn't respect you, find alternatives and remain free.

This post is number #7 of my #100DaysToOffload project. Follow my progress through Mastodon!

Last updated on 03/19/21