The Price of Free Apps
免费应用的代价
Most of the apps on our phones cost nothing to download. We pay for them in a different currency: our attention and our personal data.
手机上的大多数应用都是免费下载的。我们其实是用另一种货币在付钱：注意力和个人数据。
An app that shows advertisements earns money each time we look at the screen. So its designers are paid to keep us scrolling, not to help us finish and leave.
一个靠广告赚钱的应用，每次我们看屏幕它都在赚钱。所以它的设计师是被付钱来让我们一直往下滑的，而不是帮我们办完事就离开。
Some apps collect far more information than they need in order to work at all. A simple torch app has no reason to know where we live or who our friends are.
有些应用收集的信息远远超过它正常工作所需。一个手电筒应用没有任何理由需要知道你住在哪、你的朋友是谁。
This does not mean that every free app is dishonest or badly built. It means we should read the permissions, and ask what our attention is really worth.
这并不是说每个免费应用都不诚实、做得差。它的意思是：我们该看看权限列表，并想清楚自己的注意力到底值多少钱。