Sunday Snapshot 08/28/16

Sunday's daily email newsletter from TechCrunch zooms in on what's really important with an analysis of two or three key tech news stories from the past week. Please enjoy, and let us know what you think of the new format.

How far will the "if you're not paying for it, then you're the product?" maxim extend? It's a question worth asking this week, as companies in very different industries made moves to productize their user base. WhatsApp finally let the other shoe drop, announcing it would begin sharing user data with Facebook and allowing businesses more positioning on the platform. And a startup called Spiri emerged out of stealth, offering free carpooling access to anyone who signs up to drive their fellow service users around.

The WhatsApp example is novel only in that it flies against some of the core company principles set out by founder Jan Koum, who penned a blog post post-Facebook acquisition articulating how the messaging app's new owner wouldn't affect its stance on personal privacy. Koum was also one of the most outspoken supporters of Apple's encryption battle with the FBI, and WhatsApp was early to turn on end-to-end encryption for every message sent via its service.

But the larger trend among free social services like WhatsApp is to monetize its users by selling their usage and identity data, either directly or indirectly via targeting, to advertisers – that's the primary source of revenue for parent co. Facebook, after all. Hence, the product for FB is the network platform on one end, but also the user data on the other – and the user data is the more directly lucrative of the two.

Even the example of carpooling startup Spiri isn't entirely unheard of. Siri will be using service members as its core labor force – essentially, when it launches in 2017, Spiri will be running an UberPOOL equivalent where a percentage of the passengers actually drive the cars themselves, so it's more an evolution of an existing model where the compensation is essentially free access to vehicles, instead of actual monetary compensation.

But Spiri told me one more key thing about their service – they're making their own electric cars specifically for the startup's use, and using human drivers is only the first step: Eventually, Spiri hopes to automate the vehicles, resulting in a driverless network of carpool vehicles. And this is where the "you're the product" adage takes on even more potential significance.

With Uber, Ford, Google, GM, Spiri and who knows how many other companies all aggressively pursuing plans to field fleets of driverless vehicles that can provide on-demand rides, there's no question that there will be downward price pressure. Uber is already saying its self-driving car rides will be lower cost than those with human drivers, and Spiri claims prices in line with bus fares for its eventual offering.

The list of companies working on self-driving fleets designed for use as a service is big and growing, and includes companies like Google who are essentially the reason for the existence of the 'user as product' maxim to begin with. There's reason to believe they're already looking at the particulars of an eventual business model, too – a hire just last week makes it seem like they've hit the point where they need business acumen over technical expertise at the top of the org.

Self-driving taxi networks aren't here yet, but you already see companies competing on price, or eat least anticipating the need to do so. And autonomous cars also provide a medium similar to Facebook in terms of captive attention for advertising. Since you're literally contained within and surround by it, and just killing time en route to somewhere else, it's almost like a physical manifestation of Facebook, in fact.

It's hard not to see a future where we're paying little to nothing for getting around – but there's no getting around the fact that we'll still be paying, one way or another.

Get the context:

• Ford's self-driving car plan detailed
• You're not just the product, you're the ads
• Uber's self-driving cars will give cheaper rides than human drivers
• The Facebook Epoch