Most people don’t know what they’re agreeing to. Micolas/Shutterstock.com
Have you ever actually read an app’s privacy policy before clicking to accept the terms? What about reading the privacy policy for the website you visit most often? Have you ever read or even noticed the privacy policy posted in your doctor’s waiting room or your bank’s annual privacy notice when you receive it in the mail?
No? You’re not alone. Most people don’t read them.
People are confronted with terms of service agreements and privacy policies all the time. Regulations requiring these notices aim to ensure that consumers can make informed decisions, but current privacy policies miss the mark. They are surprisingly ineffective at informing consumers, as Rebecca Balebako, Lorrie Cranor and I analyze in a recently published article.
In 2008 a study estimated that it would take 244 hours a year for the typical American internet user to read the privacy policies of all websites he or she visits – and that was before everyone carried smartphones with dozens of apps, before cloud services and before smart home technologies. With our research, my colleagues and I propose a better way to make clearer privacy policies that are easier to follow.
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