> If you would like to offer a solution to the fact that the vast majority of people in this country expect software to be free

This is critical. I think it even goes beyond this: most developers expect software they use to be open source. People have gotten used to the software from Google/Facebook/etc that they can develop and release as open source due to their essentially infinite revenue stream.

>If you would like to offer a solution to the fact that the vast majority of people in this country now expect software to be free (save, some AAA video game titles), I am all ears.

Subscriptions? I pay for Netflix, Amazon Prime, Github, MS Office, a VPN, and probably a few others.

If you're B2B, use price per user/customer/developer? e.g. Highcharts was worth the money vs. free options.

The problem is there's no guarantee you don't also collect info or decide to play ads even if I pay for a subscription.

> do my best to ensure

Good to hear. The next dev, manager, owner on the team is not likely to be as conscientious however.

Once information is collected it is rarely deleted, so trust in random third parties is still not wise.

I trust that we all have a general vested interest in avoiding data breaches for sake of profits and public image. I do believe that we need a tad bit of regulation around data collection not because we are all shitheads that throw your data around, but for those couple of bad actors that ruin it for everyone to bring their businesses up to par with what the rest of us are doing -- but nothing as extreme as GDPR. This is America after all, and liberty is hard, but I still believe it's the most important principle. At the end of the day you are still entering an agreement to exchange your information for the use of the services, and you are at liberty to not enter into that agreement. It's obvious to me that people are not concerned with that enough that they are willing to shell out money for their email, content, recipes, craft ideas, photo storage, social platforms, payment platforms, and until the people change the business incentives will be focused on data collection. To not sound like I am on that high horse, I too utilize many of these services. The problem however for me is not unwillingness to pay, but as it stands right now there isn't a paid product that can compete with some of the services I get for free.