TLDR: How Your Apps Manipulate You

By: R. Renzo

 When was the last time you've read the Terms & Conditions for a website or app? If it is never, then you identify with the great majority of the population, blindly pressing the "I Agree" button and moving on. But what are we actually agreeing to? 

The project "I Agree" by designer Dima Yarovinsky (pictured) puts into perspective the reality within these terms of service agreements. As a part of the infographics course at the Bezalel Academy, Yarovinsky printed out the full terms of use for apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook on long rolls of coloured A4 paper. Hanging from the gallery walls are paper trails so long they fall onto the ground. Seeing the terms of service printed out in full makes the issue impossible to ignore. This raises the question: Why is something so important made so unreadable? 
 
The clear issue is these agreements are overwhelming and simply unreadable for the common person. For example, Instagram's own policy is over 17,000 words long, taking the average person 86 minutes to read! The reality is that nobody spends that kind of time reading these documents before using a service. Most of us just click "agree" and hope for the best. Over time, we have become used to ignoring terms and conditions. But what Yarovinsky shows is that this behaviour isn't harmless, but instead the bearer of various detrimental consequences. 
 
The truth is that by agreeing, users give companies access and collect data like location, browser history, and even private messages. This data can be used in various ends, targeted ads, third parties or even be stored for years. By being a legal contract, the Terms & Conditions binds users into ultimately giving up many of their rights to the large corporations that control these platforms.  
 
While most of us will probably keep skipping these terms, Yarovinsky's work is a reminder that maybe we should look deeper. In a world where digital platforms have become a part of everyday life, we owe it to ourselves to stop and question what we're agreeing to. It is not only data that is being given away; it is also control. The terms of service are too long, too complicated, and too easy to ignore. But ignoring them does not mean the agreement or their consequences go away.