Free unlimited WIFI, data, and cell service sounds like a dream right? Well there is a catch, then a asterisk for the catch. Whether this is good news or bad news, I think it is coming.
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The trend pointing to free unlimited WIFI
As more and more companies pivot to offering ‘free’ or heavily discounted services, it is only a matter of time before internet and phone services hit the trend. Think about Robinhood with no order fees (yay free stock trading!) – they make a significant amount of money from selling the data they collect. The same goes for their 3% cash back credit card.
So how does this get me free unlimited WIFI?
Here comes the idea. Imagine a large phone company like Verizon decides they want to dominate the world and get everyone on their phone and internet plans. One thing they may consider is offering free calls/texts/data/internet. That would be hard to turn down, wouldn’t it?
What is the catch?
How could they possibly afford that? Take a page out of Robinhood’s book. People do EVERYTHING through their phones/internet now. Publicly announce that the free plan collects data as you use it so they are transparent and have no legal issues. Now they can collect call info, all browsing info, location info, etc. This can be sold at an EXTREMELY high price. This is no longer ‘what are they buying’ and is now ‘what are they going to buy and what are they interested in’.
Don’t they already do this?
To some extent, yes. But when you publicly make a big deal about it, they can be more aggressive and collect more data. If it is being done anyway and cookies are tracking what we do, might as well get free service out of it.
The company that makes this move will likely draw in customers because:
- It is hard to beat free forever
- I am being tracked any way, might as well benefit from it.
This is a short and simple idea, but I think it plays into a trend of having less and less privacy. This trend will make most of our information public, but also make our services cheaper/free. Cost of living drops alongside privacy. Is the trade off worth it?
Next week there will be a deeper dive into the loss of privacy. But for now, you can check out other ideas like this here.
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