> Look at the Tor network, for example, the next time you assume that nobody would run a service for free without collecting data or ads.

Oh an exit node certainly has the capability to collect data. Have enough of them and you can de-anonymize an user.

But not everyone is running exit nodes. And even if they are they get random requests that can't easily be correlated to a source.

My point is that most people run those services for free without the expectation of collecting personal data.

But I think the expectation of free internet services sort of originates in that kind of attitude. Because originally the internet was a bunch of hackers using their spare bandwidth and their spare cpu cycles to host web sites. Perhaps they enjoyed it enough to volunteer the extra cash for dedicated servers and dedicated internet connections.

It's only after that in the second step that people try to monetise. Nowadays of course it's money from the getgo, but things have changed.

There's still plenty of free today. Lots of people run websites with highly interesting information and then distributed it without benefiting from the ads that run on the site (e.g. a Wordpress blog, where the privacy invasion and ad revenue profits go to Wordpress not the blogger).

There are also still plenty of ways to host content that is free to a reasonable point of usage.

See Firebase Hosting [a sister team of mine]: 1GB hosting and 10GB xfer monthly without even dropping a credit card.