[davidgh]

I think there’s a difference. “You are the product” means that your usage and data are the primary thing the company develops (with software) so it can be sold to their actual customers, namely, advertisers.

I’ve been involved with many software companies that gather various metrics (analytics, crash logs, user info, etc.) but do not sell that data to anyone. As such, the user is not “the product” but the customer. I think there’s a meaningful difference here.

[zo1]

In those cases the user is an asset for the company. And not "asset" in a good way if you ask me. It's more of an resource than anything noble.