We talk about freedom – freedom of speech, freedom of expression and a host of others which I never ever paid a second thought about. The latest one particularly trending now is the freedom of the internet, and  the protest for net-neutrality. I am totally away from the battle zone. The results doesn’t affect me now. My opinion shouldn’t count over someone who will feel the direct aftermath. However, exercising my right of expression, here is my 2 p worth of opinion.
We already lost this freedom, particularly through the rise of Google. Its already most of our homepage, or at least the first site that comes to our mind when we are looking for information. How does this information come from? A very complex algorithm running at the background, which ranks pages and thus, the search results depend on the relevance. However, we ignore the fact that the relevance is determined by a corporate algorithm. And the top results, which we are usually interested in are also determined by that. I have no way of telling how that algorithm works, but the bottom line is it can be tweaked, and results we are interested in can be in the next page or the next or the next. So, how is this related to the protest for net neutrality? Every page we have to skip to find the relevant content, we are using bandwidth, and in turn money, particularly if you are on a limited data plan on a phone, or one which throttles after a particular cap.
Talking about phones, the top 2 manufacturers – android and iOS allow installation of apps which are approved in their app store. Even certain manufacturers like Microsoft or Amazon have their own app stores for their apps. Net neutrality may demand access for all apps across all devices, but unfortunately, you get what you pay for. Thus, for using a premium iOS app, you have to opt for an expensive iPhone. While the choice is ours, it doesn’t mean everyone has the same access to the same quality of content with respect to different hardware.
The next generation of personalization came with Facebook and it’s integration with various other websites and services. No more filling long and boring forms, one click of ‘Connect with Facebook’ and voila, we can start. The beauty of this is that we and in turn Facebook os giving the website/app access to our personal information, and the more we talk and share and communicate, the more valuable our information becomes. Now, if one fine day, Facebook decides to charge for the access or revoke its access, imagine how many users and businesses will be affected. The more we are dependent on a particular service, the more we will be controlled. We need to realize that each of the service, social media, app that are use and have always considered as free has a hidden cost.
Perhaps my hypothesis is too far fetched. And the issue at hand is far more serious and the implications, far reaching. However, all I see is some telecom operators charging bandwidth for certain applications and making others free? Well if you are buying data, why not use it? Its our inclination for free stuff that has ensnared us. I see the only way to defeat the entire purpose is to use passive aggression. Either switch to another operator which doesn’t have these free services, or not use the free service at all. I hope the protests work out, but if it doesn’t, always remember, that it is ultimately the users and numbers, that determine the success of any online business. Just refuse to buy what they offer, in case the product they are offering is not favorable. May the force be with you.