• Why do users ignore privacy and conditions of use policies?
• What is a user agreement and how can they vary?
• Why is it important to read the conditions of use and privacy policies?
• What tools can you help you read privacy policies and conditions of use?
• How to quickly read privacy policies and conditions of use?

Have you really read the privacy policy of an application before accepting the conditions of use? Have you heard the term eula? If you have done it, you are probably a lawyer, someone especially worried about your consumer rights or work in technology. In this case, any of those would be good.

In case you do not know much about that and stores to overlook privacy policies and conditions of use, you are not alone. In fact, a 2017 Deloitte survey revealed that 91% of consumers in the US does not read legal terms before accepting them [1].

So what are these documents, why you are asked to accept them and you really need to read them word for word? Here we will give you some tips on the key elements that you must search to save valuable time and be able to review only the most important parts.

Why do users ignore privacy and conditions of use policies?

A main reason to skip legal texts is that they can be incredibly long and detailed. It has even created works of art around the concept of how small are humans compared to the great corporations and their extensive legal jargon. A great example of that was Dima Yarovinsky project, in which he visualized the terms of use of services such as Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Tinder, Google and WhatsApp [2].

These documents are not only long, but they are also very complex, written in a legal language that would confuse most readers - sometimes accidentally and other times by design. Some investigations by The New York Times suggest that Facebook's privacy policy is more difficult to read than "a brief time of time" by Stephen Hawking [3].

What is a user agreement and how can they vary?

In simple terms, a user agreement is a formal agreement between the owner of a software, such as an application or website, and the end user - probably you. This gives you the right to use the software or service, and also protects the business owner against misuse, in addition to giving him the legal right to collect information about you.

Now let's discover more. So what types of agreements are there?

• Conditions of use (also known as "terms and conditions" or "service conditions") regulate the use of a mobile website or application. This document establishes rules on payments and subscriptions, community interactions, copyright protection, among others.
• Privacy policy describes what type of data a company collects from its users, how the company collects that data and what it does with them.
• EULA (End User License Agreement) grants the user the right to download some application (a copy of the software), provides rules for use, explains copyright protection, among others [4].

As you probably know, most of the applications and web services that you use collect your personal information. It is often not clear why that information can be used. Let us focus on the aspect of personal privacy, which is described widely in a document of conditions of use and is detailed in a privacy policy.

Why is it important to read the conditions of use and privacy policies?

Even if they are boring, user agreements exist for a reason. It is basically the only way to understand what happens to your personal information and decide if you agree with it. Why is that important?

• Free services are paid with your personal information

For many digital companies, collecting and selling your personal information is their main way to earn money. They provide details about your activities online, preferences and location to advertisers and get payment for that data. In return, advertisers may show more personalized and efficient ads. Privacy policies explain what types of personal details are collected and shared in this way.

• Data gap incidents occur

To be precise, the incidents of data gaps occur every day . The more companies handle your personal information, the greater the risk of hackers to rob. After reading through a privacy policy, you could decide not to use a particular application due to how they will handle your information. It is your decision.

• Your consent is legally binding

Imagine that you find out that a social network used your personal information - perhaps an image of yours, taken from your profile, was included in its marketing campaign. You could feel upset and ask you how it could happen. The probability is that when you accepted the conditions of use and privacy policies, you gave your consent - because you did not read all the small text.

What tools can you help you read privacy policies and conditions of use?

As we have discussed, the problem with long and illegible documents is something we need to address, since we all need to understand what we are accepting when we click on "I accept". Luckily, some intelligent people out there have created automated solutions to help users quickly understand what they are facing. Here are some of those:

• Terms of Service; Didn't read (cough; dr)

This is a project launched by a team of activists in 2012. They qualify various conditions of use and privacy policies highlighting their most important positive and negative aspects. Currently, the Tosdr.org website contains about 300 short reviews of the most popular terms of services. Includes information related to Google, Amazon, IMDB, The New York Times, Minecraft and more. The project is open to new participants, so you can contribute too.

What is really ingenious, is that the creators of cough; DR created extensions for all popular browsers. This means that, every time you visit a website that is in the service database, you can click on the extension icon and see a review of its terms. You can get this extension in coughing.org [5].

• Polysis

This service provides summaries promoted by the IA of several privacy policies. If you are going to pribot.org/polysis , you can choose a policy of a large data bank and see what type of user information collects a certain company and what it does with the data.

Let's see how Polisis analyzes Google's privacy policy:

It is interesting to note that Google collects user location data. Why do this? According to this graph, the company uses them for basic and additional service functions, analytical research, customization and other purposes, but not for advertising. Similarly, we can examine other data collections and their use.

This service is also available as an extension for browsers

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