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>The vast majority of these privacy policies exceed the college reading level. And according to the most recent literacy survey conducted by the National Center
by 0xffff2 7y ago
>The vast majority of these privacy policies exceed the college reading level. And according to the most recent literacy survey conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, over half of Americans may struggle to comprehend dense, lengthy texts. That means a significant chunk of the data collection economy is based on consenting to complicated documents that many Americans can’t understand.
How is this different to law itself? If we're going to argue that it's problematic for something as (relatively) inconsequential as privacy policies to be unintelligible, shouldn't we start with something more basic?
- icebraining 7y agoThat the legibility of the law could and should be improved is a fair point. That said, humanity isn't incapable of concurrency - there's no reason to have to wait for the law before tackling privacy policies, which while a lesser issue, are also easier to change.
- ryandrake 7y agoI’d argue that the vast majority of Americans would struggle to comprehend a basic cell phone contract, auto loan, or mortgage, which we routinely sign. The problem is that people have to pretend to understand/agree with something in order to receive a service. You should not have to agree to a deliberately incomprehensible document as a condition of receiving a service you pay for.