Privacy Policies Are Great — For PhDs 161
An anonymous reader writes "Major Internet companies say that they inform their customers about privacy issues through specially written policies. What they don't say is that more often than not consumers would need college undergraduate educations or higher to easily wade through the verbiage. BNET looked at 20-some-odd privacy policies from Internet companies that received letters from the House about privacy practices. The easiest to read policy came from Yahoo, at a roughly 12th grade level. Most difficult? Insight Communications, which at a level of over 20 years of eduction officially puts it onto IRS Code territory."
Re:Dubious measure. (Score:5, Informative)
I did - with several PG texts. Alice shows the most "variability" of the ones I tried between the different scores. Are these same grading schemes designed to cope with pages of numbered T&C's? I don't know. The point is that the measures are useless unless used under certain conditions and no effort has been made to ensure those conditions were met.
It's a poor application of what are basically statistical formulae on the lengths of certain words. What if the ISP's name was "BT" compared to "International Communications"? What if one ISP uses the "hereafter referred to as THE COMPANY" trick and one states the company name each time? It's a totally bogus measure. I could easily form any conclusion I felt like by playing with this "experiment" and it would be hard to argue against it without a basic knowledge of statistics. However, the article's approach is completely rubbish and anyone who looks at what those grades measure can see it's a waste of time.
That said, most ISP T&C's don't follow the "plain English" doctrine more than "we use long words". They HAVE to use long words, the technical descriptions demand it most of the time. I could reword any of those T&C's to be MORE difficult to understand, despite being perfect English, and get a lower reading score.
If you're gonna quote numbers about something, know what the numbers mean and how they apply.
Re:It's Quite Obvious Why They're At This Level (Score:3, Informative)
I've never understood the point of these "privacy policies".
Regardless of their reading difficulty, they all end or contain:
"We have the right to change everything that you are agreeing to without your consent."
That is not a policy, that is especially not a privacy policy, its simply the individual giving up their privacy.
Re:It's Quite Obvious Why They're At This Level (Score:2, Informative)
This is why we have the EULAyzer [brothersoft.com].
Re:Writing quality... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:It's Quite Obvious Why They're At This Level (Score:3, Informative)
I'm sure it varies state to state but in WA you can't hide important terms within the boilerplate or the rest of the contract and rely upon that in court. Jurors are generally instructed to disregard contract terms which they believe only one party knew about.
Judges also instruct jurors to disregard any interpretations which render the clause to be absurd or ridiculous and to interpret the clauses in the way that the parties agreed to as much as possible.
IANAL your mileage may very well vary.
Re:Writing quality... (Score:1, Informative)
It's called a 'liberal arts education'. The point is to give you a broader view of how the world works and how your chosen carrier fits in to it.
Yes, you are already supposed to know the basics of history, reading, etc. But the college has decided that some further study in certain areas would probably aid you as a person. That's the general idea.
And yes, there are colleges in the USA which don't follow that theory. They are called 'trade colleges' and will have an intense course in just the knowledge required for that trade. Their graduates are generally looked down on as unlikely to be able to handle anything outside of their specific competency.
The general idea is probably sound. The specifics, like much of the USA's education system, probably needs work.
Re:It's Quite Obvious Why They're At This Level (Score:4, Informative)
No-Nonsense License Statement
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