I agree. If we are not paying for the product, we are the product. Companies take our data, searches, likes etc and use it to push ads on us. If we don’t pay for things (like google and Facebook) we have had to accept this.
Internet companies control of data gives them enormous power. Technologies and the internet have made data abundant, ubiquitous and far more valuable. Artificial intelligence and many algorithm can operate on our data to extract valuable information. All our data gives them tremendous power and more profits.
This is a big problem, given how omnipresent the internet is in the lives of every human alive today, and it's something we should all be concerned about. We are the ones who are giving up our data willingly, and that makes up for all but 100% of these companies bottom line, so remember that we have all the power here.
And hope Blockchain technology will disrupt these industries🙂