Dear xairbusdriver and WeatherCat observers of Internet economic trends,
Unfortunately that is the real peril of all this "cloud computing" stuff. I have always felt better when I was paying for something.
Sorry, but it has nothing to do with "cloud". And you are paying to use their "service".
No, the matter is more complex than that. It depends on the services you use and how you use them. In this case I was thinking about the transition from Mobile-Me to iCloud. When I was paying for Mobile-Me, I thought I could demand better service for the things that mattered to me - mainly my dot-Mac email account. Apple cannot make much of profit by scanning my emails at at least publicly claims they won't do that. Apple has a real incentive to keep that promise because they make their money when I buy their products. Knowing what I write on my emails isn't likely to give them much of an advantage in designing the next Mac and iPhones.
You are paying by giving them all the info about you and your habits/friends/purchases/etc. that they can get.
I think this also misses the mark. Google makes money finding out what you are looking for on the web. Well, I use Google for everything from finding out how to spell something correctly to looking for parts for my trusty 1965 Buick wagon. So what Google can take advantage is very much under my control to some degree. I'm not worried about Google trying to expand into the Buick parts market - indeed if they were stupid enough to do that - I'm all for it! At the same time, I deliberately feed Google "misinformation." I use Google as a rich-text to plain text converter when I need that. Google is wonderful for converting rainfall values from inches to millimeters. In the end you can decide if search engines are going to make much money on you or not.
Sites like Facebook and Twitter aren't making money on you directy, they are counting on you to be their "content providers." That's why I -
don't - participate in either. I do have a Twitter account, but it is only used to send weather data and that was to debug my AppleScripts. Once more you have a choice at to where you put your content for others to enjoy. In my case a lot of my content ends up on forums that I feel are more focused on my interests and my contributions at least can be better received.
Phenomena like Facebook and Twitter are tapping into some deep psychological needs of especially younger people. It doesn't take a psychologist to realize that loneliness is an epidemic and children of broken families are feeling especially vulnerable. Unfortunately, all this is a folly in it is own right. The fear of being completely alone leads to many shallow relationships and much turmoil that could be avoided. Still given the choice of having 100 phony friends on Facebook seems better than to realize that - you don't have any real friends at all.
Edouard