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The Internet was born and grew within the concept that everything – or almost everything – was free, except when the first virtual stores and some more specific content portals began to appear.
With its commercial development came more restricted content that required subscriptions and therefore payments. But despite this, the idea that it is always possible to find a website or even several that “do something” and theoretically deliver the same contents, without having to pay for them, is widely spread.
Have you ever thought if everything that exists on the Internet is really free? Who pays the bill for everything you consume? More than that, what risks do you run when consuming content that in theory is or seems to be free?
Is the Internet really free?
Long before the world wide web became what it is, a phrase was already uttered and which here also serves to reflect on: “There is no free lunch”.
It means that in the world we live in, it is illusory to think that it is impossible to have or enjoy anything, without a consideration, without giving something in return.
This may seem like overkill, especially for those who witnessed the first websites, in the early days of the Web.
How many content sites emerged at the time, how many blogs, portals and even the first social networks such as Orkut and absolutely no penny was necessary to give in exchange for what they offered.
Let’s take as a basis a site that no longer exists, like many thousands of others, but which was a reference in its segment back in the 2000s, when the Internet bubble burst – Envenenado!
It was an automotive content portal, with more than 20 sections to satisfy the well-known Brazilian passion for cars. That was even its slogan: “Poisoned – The site for car enthusiasts!”.
In its heyday, with tens of thousands of unique visitors per day, Envenenado had as advertisers, from some famous workshops specialized in engine preparation, suspensions and sports exhausts, an important magazine of prepared cars, another of automotive sound, one of the biggest e-commerces of automotive accessories and even the most famous manufacturer of window film.
As he was also one of the first to participate in the affiliate program of an e-commerce that had just arrived in the country and which is currently one of the largest in the world and also of an outstanding retailer with a national presence.
Therefore, despite the fact that several hundred articles about the world of the car were open to everyone, they exchanged all the attention that their visitors dispensed for advertising. As it still happens today.
The only thing that has changed are the actors behind it all, in addition to the fact that today, thanks to the evolution of technology and the efficiency in collecting information from this public and the return obtained, which are significantly greater.
Many will say that Orkut was born, grew and died without advertising. And truth!
But the project by the Turkish engineer who worked at Google, Orkut Büyükkökten, if at first glance it does not seem to have given financial return to the search giant, it was an incredible laboratory to learn much of what is known today about the power of social networks.
The variety of information we give about ourselves at each click, at each access, in the registrations we fill out, in the time we spend consuming each content presented, in short, everything we do while connected, serves for the algorithms to accumulate a database and a knowledge about each one that not many of us have.
This knowledge is worth gold! No wonder it is often said that we live in the information age, when what has or produces power is this new “commodity”.
But as we opened this topic, it comes at a price. And that can contain risks too!
What are the risks of free content on the Internet?
Gratuity itself is not risky. The reasons for what is offered without apparently charging anything in return are that they can be.
This blog, like the aforementioned Envenenado and Orkut, as well as several others that you certainly remembered, “charges” in exchange that you remember the HostMídia brand, that you feel grateful for the enlightening contents, curious perhaps to know which company dedicates part of its efforts to shedding light on important issues for companies that are customers, to building a good digital reputation, in short, to work of an institutional nature and to strengthen domain authority.
We practice through our blog, what we defend when we talk about Content Marketing and Inbound Marketing.
Here we just share the our knowledge, hoping that HostMídia will be remembered when you think about what we deliver to you.
But there are many contents that do not have the same motivation.
This is the case of content sites originating from piracy, such as game sites that are paid in principle, but which provide them for free. Or those that “compete” with video and music streaming or even with the movie industry. There are also those that deliver pirated software for download, without having to pay for a license.
It may seem at first, a good advantage to watch “for free” the fourth film that continues the Matrix trilogy, just a few days after its release in theaters.
The numbers suggest that many people think so, after all only in between january and august in 2022, according to MUSOsuch sites have had more than 140 billion visits.
The justifications that many give for this behavior is that the industries behind these products already make enough profit and that what they eventually lose or fail to gain makes no difference.
It is not up to us to judge this type of argument, because the focus of this post is not that, but the possible consequences for those who adopt such a practice.
legal problems
It started in the cinema industry and is advancing in other segments, the adoption of a set of technologies that allows a movie played on a notebook, for example, to track and obtain a series of identification data of its visualization.
Without many technical details, because that is not the objective, Internet users who irregularly access many of the films currently released will automatically allow the rights holders to sue them in national and international bodies in different countries.
In practical terms, in the US and even in Brazil, people are being notified in court, after a process that manages to prove that the person consumed pirated content or content protected by copyright laws.
Literally the bill is coming, in the form of five-figure fines in some cases, as well as prosecutions and other penalties.
malware
Malware – which many people know as a virus – are the most frequent risk to which users who adopt the practice of circumventing payment for certain content are exposed.
The issue is that malware classes are diverse and so are the consequences.
As in the case of the increasingly popular ransomware, which encrypts the data contained on the device and extorts it to decrypt the data, upon payment of a ransom, usually in cryptocurrency and without even having any guarantee that, even paying, the release key.
Or who knows about spyware, which belongs to the class of malware responsible for spying on everything the user does, to which bankers belong, who are specialized in stealing credentials to access bank websites and applications.
Those who suffer from such an infection often have severe headaches with their credit cards and bank accounts.
As we said, the variety is great and there are even those who “hijack” your machine to integrate an attack network (DDoS) or maybe mine cryptocurrency.
data leak
Another common problem that may also be associated with malware is data leakage, as there are classes of these “viruses” that manage to steal access credentials to social networks and other services to which the user is subscribed.
With access to the accounts, your data becomes part of the databases of criminals, who can use them for other virtual frauds or who knows how to sell them on the Dark Web.
Worse when hacked service accounts contain payment data.
But there are also cases when pirate sites ask for something that may seem innocuous at first, such as using your Facebook account to log in and gain access. At that point, just like in cases of malware, they can gain access to your data.
too much publicity
The excess of online advertising is so widespread that what was once a practice only on pirate sites is now common on legitimate and theoretically safe sites.
For this reason, many people are willing to “pay the price” of being bothered by 794 banners and pop-up windows with them. But the issue is that in pirates, much of this advertising is misleading and often associated with malware as well.
Ads on these sites are rarely what they appear to be.
Often, what should be a click to close an ad is a link to download malicious content.
Other times, malware known as adware (advertising malware) is installed, which means that even after leaving the website, your browser will continue to display advertising linked to the malicious website. In the most aggressive ones, pop-up windows can appear even after closing the browser.
This is because criminals earn by displaying advertisements and not just by the clicks they eventually receive. Because they pay in pennies for multiple views, they have to make sure it’s viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
SPAM
Whether due to access to data due to malware, or because the visitor used your social network account to grant access, or because you voluntarily and innocently provided your email address, your account will become a massive target for SPAM.
A valid, active email address is valuable to cybercriminals and quickly your address will be sold and distributed across the Dark Web.
And as you know, SPAM is one of the main ways of spreading malware, phishing and spoofing. That is, the problems unfold in others.
Therefore, accessing a site that promises to save BRL 19.99 on the subscription to that streaming per month, can actually be much more expensive, either due to the loss of data, or through the use of your bank details, or by hiring a a service that specializes in formatting and reinstalling everything you have on your device. Not to mention the possibility of problems with justice!
Conclusion
Sites with free content are most of the content we access. But in some of them you have to be very careful, so that it is not too expensive.
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