Slashdot Mirror
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).
If there were a few standardized policies that most sites used, then users wouldn't need to read them. Like with software licenses, you don't bother to read the GPL for each time you install software that uses that license.
Or maybe people shouldn't submit their data to every website they visit. If they care about their privacy, they had better well read the privacy policy.
Companies aren't going to dumb-down their policies and open themselves to lawsuits. They are precise and lengthy for a reason.
In the end it doesn't even matter, though. They all include a clause that lets them change the policy any time they like.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
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!"
Some group need to write a half dozen or so policies covering a range of options and publish them under a license which *does not* allow them to be used under the same name if any changes are made.
Who really reads the GPL anymore after you have went through it a few time? the MPL? BSD? If you get somewhere under a dozen options out there you can save *everybody* time..
"Ahh! Arrogance and stupidity in the same package, how efficient of you!" --Londo Molari
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.
Even better, a tag could tell your browser which standard policy is being used. Tell your browser which policies you want to be accepted, and what action to take for sites with other policies.
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.
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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
Not even congress reads the laws.
If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
The researchers propose that, if the industry can't make privacy policies easier to read or skim, then federal intervention may be needed.
Why? Why should I need the federal government to get involved? At what point did I lose the power to choose to simply not use the service. If I don't have time to read the policy, then I can simply say no. It is only at the point that I no longer have a choice and that my rights are threatened that I need the federal government to step in and protect my rights.
How did we become a society of people who believe that the only ones who can solve our problems are the government, worse, the federal government? Have we no self reliance anymore?
Fair assessment. Great turnaround time.
Would troll again AAAAAAAAAAAAA++++++++++++++++