Most people do seem to understand all of this, at least on some level. Consider the Facebook hoax that was making the rounds a few weeks ago. There was a rumor that Facebook would begin to charge a fee for using the service. People who took the hoax seriously were outraged. Why? I think it's because we all know just how invested we are in Facebook. If a free e-mail service like Gmail started charging people, its users could switch to . If Facebook were to alienate its users (its bread and butter) by charging for what had been free, I promise you that + would love to have them. But these people realize that they have created unique value on Facebook that is priceless to them. Facebook makes it fairly easy to upload content, but next to impossible to extricate that same content. You can't just migrate your content elsewhere. The strong reaction to the idea of Facebook charging for its service suggests that we all know that our content has great value, and that the time we invested in organizing it is valuable.

Facebook is a great example of the economy that underlies much of the Internet. But it is hardly alone. The bulk of the most profitable Web companies are "free" sites that sell advertising. They sell your clicks, which in the aggregate create billions of dollars of wealth. What's more, YouTube (to take one example) depends on your videos for its content. Its parent company, Google, wouldn't have a business model if it didn't have access to all those websites that other people have spent time and money creating.

Facebook, YouTube, Google, LinkedIn, Reddit, etc. are all thriving companies because people love to share their own content for "free." Meanwhile, news sites, which spend hundreds of millions of dollars to put reporters around the world, are often struggling, or even bankrupt. So, yes, Facebook might not charge you, but it is far from being free. Facebook has made you its product. It has sliced and diced every aspect of what you look at, what you post, what you say your interests are, who your friends are. It has become Big Brother, not to control you, but to sell you to the highest bidder.

Let's all admit that this is true. Perhaps someday even Facebook itself will admit it, and we'll start getting from it the kind of customer support that we deserve as "paying" customers.

Ira Winkler is president of Internet Security Advisors Group and author of the book Spies Among Us. He can be contacted through his Web site, .