Two communication professors have demonstrated what we all knew about: the overwhelming majority of Internet users are not reading service terms (TOS) and privacy policies (PPs), and those who do not do it very thoroughly.
Despite this, everyone clicks the button that says "I agree to these terms and conditions."
The research
To see how many people read these terms and conditions before signing up for an online Internet service, Professors Jonathan Obar of York University and Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch of the University of Connecticut have created a fictional social networking site (SNS ) named NameDrop:
They invited 543 students to enroll in it, and then asked them to respond to a survey that contained questions about their interaction with privacy and the terms of use of the service.
And two documents were modified versions of it LinkedIn, and users would take an estimated 29 to 32 minutes to read the PP and 15 to 17 minutes to read the TOS.
But the researchers added two additional conditions: users had to allow NameDrop to share them data with third parties, including government agencies (eg the NSA), and that they should name the firstborn child NameDrop!
Results
Here are some of the results of the survey:
74% of participants did not read PP at all and those who "read" it took 73 seconds for PP and 51 seconds for ToS.
96% of participants took less than 5 minutes for PP and 97% took less than 5 minutes for ToS.
Once 15% of participants had concerns about social networking policies. Only 1,7% reported the clause that imposed the name on their child and a 2% expressed their concerns about the shared data.
The participants found the PPs and ToS big and very loud, and many simply do not read them because they are convinced they will not understand them anyway.
Researchers noted that these disheartening results would be even greater if the survey were conducted in another population, as the survey participants were communication students, who are studying Big Data issues for privacy, surveillance and order.
It is obvious that the current situation of PP and TOS on the Internet has failed and something should change.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2757465
