When I sign up for entertainment (especially games and media), I want to make sure I only get what I expect. Some developers try to slip into additional programs or adware. In general, when they do, they try to protect themselves by mentioning the additional (and potentially undesirable) content in the agreement. Those who clicked were concluded with a long user agreement. In this agreement, there were pointed clauses such as one that gives your mother permission to check your Internet browsing and another that gives name rights to your firstborn. The passage on download ownership – always a hot topic when it comes to sites like YouTube, which allow user-generated content – is clear and easy to understand: every time I open my computer these days, another website wants me to approve its new terms of use (TOS). The European Union (EU), in particular its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force in May and strengthens data protection, is held responsible. TOSs are the embodiment of a document that has not been read for too long; They`re boring, technically, and they look like weeds. Even people who have the legal skills to read them do not have the time. As an experiment, I decided to read the fine print for a week. Here`s my story. A recent Carnegie Mellon paper suggests that it would take an average of 76 days for the average Internet user to read all of their privacy policies.

The researchers found that of the top 75 sites, the average length of a privacy policy is 2,514 words. Of course, for each privacy policy, there are also terms of use, an end-user agreement or another contract. So how can we analyze all this information without spending 8 hours a day? Some have argued that the vast majority of legal vocabulary in the information age is worth little more than the pixels on which it is written. Referring to the British common law, they point out that a valid contract must, at least in theory, offer the opportunity to negotiate. End-user licensing agreements – the rules governing the use of software and even hardware, which was mainly purchased and paid for – are contrary to this legal principle. We`ll get some details for signing up for a free or paid service in the next two sections, but before we get there, we need to sign some of the common ideas you`ll find in each agreement. Mark suggests keeping an eye on some important notions. The motto of the ToS initiative; DR-User Rights (short for «Terms of Use; Did`t Read, inspired by the acronym Internet TL; DR» Too Long; Didn`t Read»: «I read the terms and I agree» is «the biggest lie on the web.» So why do we spend so much time ignoring the thousands of words from «end-user licensing agreements» (EULAs), if you prefer, to legally binding contracts that we approve every day? Is it possible to read the CGVs for everything a typical person does? Is it worth reading all this? But most of the time, you only shrug when you`re asked.