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20 Hours a Month Reading Privacy Policies

Posted by kdawson on from the half-the-bailout-every-year dept.

Barence sends word of research out of Carnegie Mellon University calling for changes in the way Web sites present privacy policies. The researchers, one of whom is an EFF board member, calculated how long it would take the average user to read through the privacy policies of the sites visited in a year. The answer: 200 hours, at a hypothetical cost to the US economy of $365 billion, more than half the financial bailout package. Every year. The researchers propose that, if the industry can't make privacy policies easier to read or skim, then federal intervention may be needed. This resulted in the predictable cry of outrage from online executives. Here's the study (PDF).

12 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. No big deal. by Mister+Whirly · · Score: 5, Funny

    200 hours? big deal.
    Average amount of hours wasted reading Slashdot at work in a year : 5,000,000

    --
    "But this one goes to 11!"
    1. Re:No big deal. by aurb · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's a good thing we don't read the articles. The number could be much much bigger...

    2. Re:No big deal. by alexhs · · Score: 3, Funny

      By my own calculations using your helpful data, it means a slashdotter in average wastes each work hour 2500 times...

      Using relativity formulae, I guess we would come close to the speed of light...

      --
      I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
    3. Re:No big deal. by MadCow42 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Actually, the average for Slashdot editors appears to be slightly lower than the general populace... it's the only explanation I can see. :)

      MadCow.

      --
      I used to have a sig, but I set it free and it never came back.
  2. Re:fp by ozphx · · Score: 5, Funny

    Short, sweet and to the point. Fine use of rhetoricals and emphasis on the punchline. This well balanced piece is let down by its brevity and typos, I can't help but feel that Coward rushed this work.

    Worth your time. Three and a half stars.

    --
    3laws: No freebies, no backsies, GTFO.
  3. What about television by iteyoidar · · Score: 3, Funny

    I would imagine every American loses like, a bujillion hours a month watching TV. That probably costs a lot too.

  4. Interesting by YourExperiment · · Score: 2, Funny

    Sounds like an interesting report, but I can't spare the time to read it.

  5. This is a very BIG deal! by tuxgeek · · Score: 4, Funny

    So, if our time, 200 hrs, is worth $350 billion
    And we spend 5,000,000 hrs / year reading slashdot
    That means our wasted hours reading slashdot is worth $8,750,000,000,000,000.00

    Good God man! If we slashdotters collude on this we can buy the whole planet and kick everyone else off it, or at least charge them rent.

    -----

    Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups

    --
    "Suppose you were an idiot...and suppose you were a member of Congress...but I repeat myself." Mark Twain
    1. Re:This is a very BIG deal! by digitig · · Score: 5, Funny

      So, if our time, 200 hrs, is worth $350 billion

      Where do I apply for this $1.75 billion an hour job, reading privacy agreements?

      --
      Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
  6. Re:They need another study by corsec67 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not even congress reads the laws.

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    If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
  7. New monetary comparison value? by cabjf · · Score: 2, Funny

    So we're going to measure the cost of things in FBP's now?

  8. Re:fp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Fair assessment. Great turnaround time.

    Would troll again AAAAAAAAAAAAA++++++++++++++++