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This is your kindly reminder that if you're not the customer, then you are the product, with an added caveat that, when it comes to social networks, you are always the product.

I say that as a happy product, uhh, user of every social network out there.

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LinkedIn actually has a lot of customers. I know many are free users, but it’s not like Facebook where the vast majority aren’t paying anything.

I think it’s fair to say that you can be both ‘the product’ and a customer at the same time.

That’s totally fair and likely very common the more I think about it.

If you're not paying, you're the product.

If you're paying, you're also the product.

You’re right, this is probably true quite often.

Take payroll companies. Their customers pay a lot for the service and in all but one case I’m aware of, the customers’ data is being sold.

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