This is why Big Tech sites are free of cost, and thriving
I picked up on this today after noticing ZenArmor blocking masses of attempts on my network from a mobile device trying to phone home for an app called Appsflyer. It seems it is embedded into apps for Meta (which operates Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp), X, TikTok, Google Ads, Hulu, eBay, etc. It tracks and analyses user behaviour, supposedly inside those apps.
The linked video is explaining to app developers and its customers how it works, and how in 2022 there were nearly 2 billion active users. But pretty damning, at 04:14 it says it can even track users who have uninstalled the application (really, how?). No mention at all in the video about any customer rights, or rights to opt out of this tracking.
The company, Appsflyer I imagine, is a licensed partner of Apple and Google.
Now we can see why some companies get really rich off their free sites, and why decentralised open source platforms have to keep appealing for donations and cannot scale very big otherwise. The difference is those open source platforms respect their users' privacy, and they live or die by donations and grants (whether in money or labour forms).
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