FOSS in most cases is very different than merely using a canned product someone else is “selling”.

Precisely within machine learning, which is this topic, it’s the difference between running models locally and just using chatgpt/etc. There is a VERY big difference and a VERY different price for entry.

The catchphrase doesn’t mean you should be wary of free software, it means you should be wary of free services.

If a service costs you no money to use, and yet costs the operator money to provide, you should think carefully about how the operator is financing it - because it may be via capture and sale of your data, or other undesirable means.

Amazing and benevolent free software does exist (and lots of it!) but there’s a reason FOSS and self-hosted are often said in the same breath. Giving away software for free costs nothing (aside from the generosity of the developer’s time) but hosting software as a service costs money, and that’s why if a service is free you should exercise suspicion.

Also - a shoutout to our Lemmy Admins as proof that this isn’t always true, and for hosting the fediverse for free out of their own pockets, simply because it’s a cause they believe in.

If the price is free, you are the product

I think you’re both right, actually. But when I’m explaining it to people I add “If the price is free and the software isn’t open source…you are the product”

It’s the basic value proposition. If a piece of software is being given to you for free from a company that wants to make a profit…they’ll be making that profit off your information. If a company/community driven project is free and open source, it means that they have different motivations than profit and you can be somewhat more sure of your privacy.