Free: Accounting for the Costs of the Internet’s Most Popular Price

A 2014 paper exploring the link between purported free services, data sovereignty, and finally privacy.

>This is the second in a two-part series of articles exploring consumer-oriented internet services through the lens of transaction cost economics. This work shows how personal information transactions—“free” exchanges—can be uneconomical: consumers cannot exit these arrangements; they create lock-in; and ultimately this is a deep moat against competition. Free transactions enable companies to bait consumers with what appears to be a good deal, but then …

accounting articles consumer consumers cost data data sovereignty economics exit free information internet lens link personal personal information popular privacy series services transaction transactions work