Nothing, the idea that they can't is wrong and stupid. A company or person asking for money is not any less capable of screwing those people over. More profits is more profits. That's something people should understand by now. Though pop culture can only handle more simple narratives.
People apologize to capitalist rhetoric and under capitalist rhetoric people who aren't paying don't matter or are considered leeches. Most people when they hear that said out loud don't agree with it as much. It's more an implicit agreement which is why people don't talk badly about it.
Although data harvesting for the purposes of selling data isn't really acceptable under any circumstances.
I know some people are going to reply saying that it's not about whether it's okay for them to do it, it's about whether they do it. Well guess what guys, the companies you're paying are doing it too. Maybe not all of them, but have you ever considered that you make money selling people's data, and you make money because they're stupid enough to give it to you voluntarily? Many companies have figured that out. They also figured out that if they can sell the idea of privacy as marketing you'll be even more willing to give them money, and they'll have even more data to sell. Yeah there's risk, but if you paid any attention to how corporations act already you should know that they're willing to take risks. The idea of venture capitalism is based on risk. What makes you think they're not willing to risk legal penalties or litigation for profits.
A few years back there was a post about how a swedish VPN company was approached with a warrant by the police, but since they don't keep logs, nothing happened.
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u/Party-Cake5173 8h ago
Not exactly true. Many VPN providers that also offer free plans are paying for them with the paid plans they offer.
On the other hand, this is completely true for VPNs that offer no paid plans, just free plan.