[thanosnose]

This should be the HN motto:

"If you aren't paying for it, you are the product".

Also, VPN isn't a magic cure for the disease of privacy violation. You are just choosing to trust the people running the VPN service over the people running your ISP. Should you trust a VPN company more than your ISP? I really can't say, but VPN isn't a magic fix.

[h4waii]

Sorry, but this is just not true at all. There are thousands of open (and closed) source projects, software, and services that do not fall under this silly statement.

Does it mean that if you do pay for a product, that you still can't "be the product"?

Blanket statements shouldn't be anyone's motto.