- Jul 13, 2014
- 766
We are all familiar with the concept ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch’. There is always an agenda that involves us giving information up or doing something to earn the lunch.
Recently Kaspersky Lab announced their adding of a free antivirus to their portfolio, making them a member of the growing list of vendors that give away their security software, apparently for free.
We all know that there is no such thing as a free lunch, or security product, so what’s the catch?
I’ve taught my son that when you download an app that’s ‘free’ you need to understand how the company makes money – maybe advertising, cross‑ and up‑selling, in‑app purchases – and if you can’t see how then you are probably what they make money from. Of course, it may be by all the methods mentioned, the key is to understand what you are trading to use a free product.
There are numerous ways free products can potentially make money and, like me, you may have experienced ‘some (or all)’ of the examples below at some stage. All these methods are examples in use by free security products being offered for download at the time of writing.
Recently Kaspersky Lab announced their adding of a free antivirus to their portfolio, making them a member of the growing list of vendors that give away their security software, apparently for free.
We all know that there is no such thing as a free lunch, or security product, so what’s the catch?
I’ve taught my son that when you download an app that’s ‘free’ you need to understand how the company makes money – maybe advertising, cross‑ and up‑selling, in‑app purchases – and if you can’t see how then you are probably what they make money from. Of course, it may be by all the methods mentioned, the key is to understand what you are trading to use a free product.
There are numerous ways free products can potentially make money and, like me, you may have experienced ‘some (or all)’ of the examples below at some stage. All these methods are examples in use by free security products being offered for download at the time of writing.