The stats and tips you can use.

POLICY ANALYSIS

Let’s face it: We have all, at one point or another, agreed to terms and conditions we haven’t read.

And, as it turns out, if we did start reading the entirety of each and every website we visited, it would consume a huge amount of our time and energy to do so.

Cybersecurity company, NordVPN, has looked into the top 20 websites in 19 countries to check how much it would take to read their privacy policies.

They have found that reading all the privacy policies of the top 20 most visited Australian websites would take over nine and a half hours, while reading all 96 websites a person typically visits in a month would take longer than a full workweek — 46.2 hours.

The average privacy policy in Australia consists of 6,876 words and takes 29 minutes to read.

“Even though we keep reminding users to read the privacy policy, one in three Aussies still doesn’t look at any legal information online,” says Adrianus Warmenhoven, a cybersecurity expert at NordVPN.

“However, this is understandable. We would need to spend a quarter of a month visiting the websites we need. A minimum-wage worker in Australia would earn around $693.38 during that time.“

The reading time of privacy policies was calculated by counting the number of words in the privacy policy and evaluating its readability with the FRES and Coleman-Liau readability tests.

Adrianus continued: “Reading a privacy policy is as important as having one. That is why companies should work hard to make their privacy policies short and easy to understand. Meanwhile, users should choose trusted websites and know what to look for.”

Some of the most popular social media platforms Aussies visit are the worst perpetrators, and this is a problem that extends to a worldwide scale.

PLATFORM BREAKDOWN

The longest privacy policy in almost all countries was the one on Meta’s social media platforms, such as Facebook or Instagram – 19,434 words. The whole policy takes around 82 minutes to read.

X, previously known as Twitter, had a much shorter privacy policy at 4,175 words, with the same readability score as Facebook or Instagram. It takes around 17 minutes to read.

X is trying to make its privacy policy “as accessible as possible” to everyone by presenting the Twitter Data Dash, a computer game that helps understand the company’s privacy policy better.

Yes, that’s how little people actually read these things. They need a game with a little doggy to explain.

In Five Eyes countries (the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the UK), Zoom scored the worst on the FRES readability test (only 24.9), which is worrying given the privacy concerns surrounding the platform.

It would take 30 minutes to read the privacy policy of Zoom.

Netflix scored the worst on the Coleman-Liau test (14.98) in these countries, which is concerning because of the fact that it can be used even by children.

The privacy policy of Netflix would take 36 minutes to read.

Outside of Australia, Germany had the longest privacy policies, but that is common for most EU countries. Privacy policies in Germany were found to be the longest, consisting of 10,485 words on average, and take around 44 minutes to read.

That is a lot, knowing that the world average is around 6,460 words and 27.14 minutes.

Other EU countries also had quite extensive privacy policies:

Italy – 7,068 words.
Poland – 7,314.
France – 7,318.

“Countries with more detailed rights (such as EU countries with the GDPR) naturally have longer privacy policies to cover everything included in the laws,” says Warmenhoven.

“This trend also shows the ambivalence of the matter — the broader the rights for privacy, the bigger the responsibility for the consumer.”

So what are some things we can do to make this process a little easier for ourselves?

HOW TO SPOT RED FLAGS

In order to save time while reading privacy policy, Adrianus Warmenhoven recommends to look for certain red flags and concerning things:

● See what data is collected.
The first part of most privacy policies outlines what data the website collects from its users. If they ask for more data that seems relevant to their services, it could be a sign of potential misuse.

● Search for “red flag” keywords.
You can try searching for words such as “sell” or “sold” to make sure you find places in the privacy policy where it is mentioned that your data may be sold to third parties. Other good keywords could be “partners” or “affiliates.” Lastly, try searching for the words “may” or “for example.” These words are used to hide some malicious actions the company takes against its users, like “may sell data.”

● Trust the verified websites.
The fewer websites used by a person, the less information is at risk of being misused. Try to avoid new and sketchy-looking websites, especially those that don’t even have a privacy policy.

Even if you don’t have the time to read each and every single word, like most of us don’t, make sure you take these recommendations into account to make things a little easier for you.

Don’t get caught off guard with hidden words or phrases, especially if you are using a phone.