Privacy policies 1/9/2020

By Mariana Garcia-Serrato

Last updated about 4 years ago

5 Questions

How difficult is it to read and understand website and app privacy policies?


This graph shows the reading level and time (in minutes) required to read the internet privacy policies for 150 popular websites and apps plus a few books.

Privacy policies explain: 
1. What information is collected by the vendor/website from each one of their users - This may include your location, your search terms, your pictures, your credit information, the names and location of the people to interact with on the web, the videos you watch, the ads you click on, your e-mail address, etc.
2. How that information is used and stored, and for how long.
3. How the information is shared with other vendors/websites. 

Which of the following is the hardest to read?

Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time 

J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Amazon's Privacy Policies

Deviant Art's Privacy Policies

MS-ETS1-1

Which of the following would take the least time to read?

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

Snapchat's Privacy Policies

Facebook's Privacy Policies

AIRBNB's Privacy Policies

MS-ETS1-1

Why would it be important for a user to read and understand the privacy policies of any of the websites included before clicking "I agree"?

What's going on in this graph? (i.e. what would be an accurate conclusion that can be supported by this graph)
To answer this question use the CER framework

Write a  >140 character Tweet that could accompany the sharing of the graph.
This means, you would write a  short sentence or two that describes one surprising thing you noticed from the graph and you accompany it with one or two relevant hashtags.
DO NOT start your tweet with the phrase "I noticed", AND #nohashtagnograde