[user5272]

Paying doesn't make you immune to surveillance, behavioral profiling, tracking, ads etc. Businesses will tell you that by doing all this crap they can offer you a discount.

This "if you're not paying, you the product" served us well but it's not accurate any more.

[JesseHercules]

I guess it's more precise to say if anyone else is paying any of the cost, you're not really the customer. You're right that there are situations where the consumer pays (say, for a smartphone) and companies pay to have bloatware installed that tries to manipulate and monetize the device owner.