A Simple Click or a Long-Lasting Tie?

By: A. Lotufo

 We’ve all scrolled, researched, and looked through the internet. Whatever you choose to do in the vast, digital world, it is certain that you have agreed to a website’s Terms & Conditions at least once. You probably didn’t think much of it – there’s a long list of things you are agreeing to (which I doubt you’ve fully read, considering most of them have around an 18-minute reading time) and at the bottom you’ve clicked “I agree”. But here’s a question: what are you agreeing to? 

When you accept Terms & Conditions, you are accepting a legally binding contract. Consequently, many cybersecurity professionals would advise reading the whole of the contract before agreeing to it to be fully understanding of the terms you are accepting, and whether that will impact you negatively or not. Despite that, a Deloitte survey consisting of 2,000 US consumers revealed that only 9% of consumers read the Terms & Conditions before consenting to them. And for people aged 18-34, only 3%.   
ProPrivacy.com also executed a test to see whether consumers read the Terms & Conditions or not. For this test, they initiated a survey with 100 participants, and upon entry, they would have to accept Terms & Conditions. Out of the 100 participants, only 19 clicked on the page leading to the terms. Even worse – only 1 person read through it with enough attention to realize it was requesting for the user to allow drones to watch over their homes. In 2017, another test by a company named Purple was executed. 22,000 people, while signing up for public Wi-Fi, had to accept Terms & Conditions. The Terms & Conditions demanded 1000 hours of community service and included a clause which offered a reward for whoever read it. Out of 22,000 people, 1 person claimed it. 
 Your data is being constantly used to benefit companies, websites, and more. But there is only 1 person that controls that data – and that person is you. Unless you actively allow brands, apps, and more to have access to what you are doing online, to your personal information, and more, they cannot do so. To conclude, read the Terms & Conditions; you are signing a binding contract when you click “I Agree”, so it’s important to understand what you are committing to.