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20 Hours a Month Reading Privacy Policies
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).
In the license world, when I see GPL, LGPL, etc most of the time I know what they are without having to read the full text. Can't they make some standard privacy policies so we can save the time reading them?
Not to nitpick, but 200 hours per year is actually 40 hours less than 20 hours per month by my rough estimate or roughly 16 hours and 40 minutes per month. Not that I am a math major or anything, but I am pretty good with basic arithmetic. Someone, please check my work.
Bill
It's my Sig and you can't have it. Mine! All Mine!
Welcome to our brave new world!
Anyway, a lot of the reasons these privacy policies are so long is to cover their asses legally in the first place! Jesus fucking christ, what can the federal government do?