The Hidden Cost of Big Tech

The tools you use every day — email, document storage, video calls, project management — feel free or cheap. But the real cost of depending on Big Tech platforms goes far beyond your monthly subscription. You pay with your data, your flexibility, and your ability to leave.

This module exposes the hidden costs of the technology most small businesses take for granted. You will learn how vendor lock-in works, what happens when your provider changes the rules, and how to calculate what your current technology setup is really costing you.

What this module covers

• The real price of “free” — how platforms monetise your data, attention, and dependency in ways that are not reflected on your invoice
• Vendor lock-in — the technical and contractual mechanisms that make it progressively harder to leave a platform the longer you use it
• When the rules change — real examples of providers altering terms, raising prices, or discontinuing services, and what happened to the businesses that depended on them
• The compliance time bomb — how using platforms that store data outside your jurisdiction creates growing regulatory exposure under GDPR and UK data protection law
• Calculating your true cost — a structured framework for adding up the direct fees, hidden costs, productivity losses, and risk exposure of your current technology stack

By the end of this module, you will have a clear-eyed view of what your technology dependencies are actually costing your business — and the motivation to explore alternatives.