> 2. When something is free, then YOU are the product.

Debian Linux, Firefox, gcc, visual studio... The list goes on. I think the "you are the product" quip has become an overplayed meme of late. Mutually beneficial / co dependence and such themes are more applicable in more cases than not when it comes to free products and services, in my own view anyways.

I think it gets twisted partially because the quote is wrong. It should be "if a _service_ is free", not "when something is free." I don't think any of the examples you've listed would be considered a service, but rather either a platform (OS) or product.

The quip is certainly overplayed, but I think the notion still stands. It is important to be aware of what intentions service providers and product sellers have. It's not so much a dig on libre / free software.

The USG provides the GPS service for free. You can argue that connecting to it isn't free (since you need hardware that can do so), but then connecting to Google and Facebook isn't free either.

This took literally two seconds to think of off the top of my head. The quotation is _still_ not accurate. It's a useful perspective on how to think about free services, but it's not a substitute for thought.

It would likely cost more to make GPS non-free because extra users don't increase the cost of running the service and keeping people locked out (until they have paid) would be a potentially very expensive technological arms race.

That doesn't apply to most services like facebook for which each active user creates extra bandwidth and processing load.

GPS is an outlier case. Unlike almost everything else, GPS has perfect scaling. No matter how many users use it, it will not be adversely affected.

Other services like that are public radio and TV.

In what way are tax funded services free?

Dude, are you kidding me? "If you're not paying for it, you're the product" is taking about free for the user. There's so many ways in which this question is incredibly stupid, but here's an easy one: In what way is usage not free for every one of the billions of people who are untaxed by the USG? Or are you under the impression that GPS only works if you show your US passport first?

A key difference with something like Debian versus Facebook is profit. Debian is an open-source project supported by a community of volunteers and donors. Facebook is a corporation that banks billions of dollars. That money doesn't materialize out of thin air. It comes from advertising, your personal information and data gathering. We know what something like the Debian project is doing, we don't know what Facebook is doing. Debian and open-source projects are "mutually beneficial", Facebook only benefits Facebook.

> I think the "you are the product" quip has become an overplayed meme of late.

It's been overplayed for years. The problem with pithy phrases, even when true in their original narrow sense, is that they allow those who aren't willing (or capable) of thinking for themselves to substitute something that superficially looks like wit without having to actually think about what they're talking about.