People are not expecting everything to be free at all. But they're making the point that if you are advertising something as 'free' when you're actually paying through the nose by having every piece of personal data extracted and sold to the highest bidder, it should not be advertised as 'free'. Becuase it isn't.
Make it free, or make it paid, or if you really must use the data harvesting model then at the very least make it very clear that it is not free because you are paying via a different means.
Did you just stop reading the comment at that phrase? You are paying through the data collected, regardless of whether you engage with the adverts or not.
Make it free, or make it paid, or if you really must use the data harvesting model then at the very least make it very clear that it is not free because you are paying via a different means.