Google has built quite a company by doing business with consumers. With a current market cap of close to $185 billion and income last year of almost $22 billion, Google is bigger than Amazon, Nike, the oft-maligned Haliburton and Pepsi. And it’s nipping at the heels of Coca Cola. But how can that be? How can a company that gives it’s products away to consumers become so big and make so much money?

The answer reveals a disturbing truth: In Google’s world you are not the consumer. You are the product.

The traditional business model casts you and I as the consumer. Companies offer products and services. If you and I see value we pay and then consume them. Companies make a profit, consumers get value and investors realize a dividend.

Google’s business model is different. Google serves well-made offerings to you and I for free. We gather around those offerings, congregating under Google’s tent, while advertisers pay Google to ‘consume’ us.

If you don’t believe me, just follow the money. Does Google make its money by giving away web searches, directions to Aunt Mabel’s or videos of baby Charlie biting his brother’s finger? No. Google makes its $22 billion a year by selling advertising. But, it can’t sell advertising if there’s no one to advertise to.

This model isn’t new. Media companies have been doing something similar for decades. They produce their offering, usually in the form of entertainment or news, serve it via print, television or radio and we congregate. Advertisers then pay to get access to us.

What makes Google different is their offering is free and they don’t pay a nickel to create it. Google’s news, search results, financial info and videos are created and financed by someone else!

If Fox News wants to run a story that they think will attract lots of readers, they have to pay journalists, photographers, fact checkers and editors to get the scoop and publish the story. That costs thousands for a piece that will fill 500 words on their site.

What does Google pay to run the same story? Nothing. They have an algorithm that searches the net, finds the Fox story—along with 15 other stories just like it—and then aggregates it on Google News. We do a search, get the Fox story for free while receiving messages from advertisers. Google makes money while Fox foots the bill.

In addition, Fox News, CBS, the Wall Street Journal, People Magazine and your local paper all have strong competition. If we don’t like what they offer we have many alternatives.

Where else can you get free high quality maps, searches, news, videos, email, language translation, voice mail, operating systems, internet browsers, images, stock quotes and spreadsheets all under one roof—other than Google? Who keeps Google in check by providing an alternative? No one.

Isn’t Google good? Their unofficial motto is, “Don’t Be Evil,” so why should we worry?

Look at Google when big money is on the line. When they moved into China the oppressive communist dictatorship insisted that Google filter its searches. This blocked the population from having access to politically sensitive content; content that would undermine the Chinese government.

Did Google fight back in favor of the people? No, they capitulated. And why should Google help? The people of China are not its concern. As long as Chinese citizens use Google’s offerings then Google is happy because people equal product and product equals potential profits.

If Google is willing to use people that live under a repressive regime for financial gain, how safe are you and I?

Google wants to put all books online, they’ve amassed satellite imagery of the world, and Google Wave is an all-encompassing discussion that makes Twitter and Facebook look like the Jitterbug. Are we ready to trust Google with every aspect of our lives?

Big game hunters know that the easiest way to find game is to get it to come to you. Hunters employ many tricks to make that happen, but one favorite is the salt lick. Hunters hang a big block of salt on a tree and then move off and hide within shooting range. Game seek it out and will lick the block for the mineral supplement. And when they do—blam! Hunters can take game all day long using a salt lick and for that reason it has been outlawed in many places; it’s just too easy.

Google’s offerings are the salt lick of commerce. We know there’s a cross-hair on our back, but $22 billion in revenues says we don’t really care, just as long as we can get a free lick.