Facebook Works to Change Terms and Conditions to Enhance User Friendliness
Facebook has been facing backlash recently due to the security scandal tied to Cambridge Analytica. This scandal has created a ripple effect regarding concerns expressed by users. Users of the social media platform are concerned about how their data has been used in the past, as well as future security. Facebook is claiming they have not violated user rights. The company stated they have not gone outside of the scope of data collecting beyond what is listed in the Facebook’s Terms and Conditions policy. This is the same policy; all users must agree to in order to use the free social media platform.
Although, to help rebuild credibility with their users, the company is taking the concerns seriously. The social media giant is addressing these concerns by reconstructing their Terms and Conditions. It is believed, most users choose not to read the policy because of the length and legal jargon within the agreement. Therefore, company officials stated they are aiming to make their Terms and Conditions more reader friendly. They plan to put the agreement in more explicit and easier to understand terms.
Less Than .01% of Users Read Policy Agreements
Often times, Terms and Conditions and End User License Agreements (EULAs) are overlooked. Users tend to be rather eager to accept the terms, without really reading them. Case in point — in 2005, PC Pitstop, the makers of PC Matic, added a Special Consideration to their EULA, that took over four months and 3,000 sales before being acknowledged by a consumer. The purpose of this exercise was to demonstrate how infrequently EULAs are read prior to the consumer accepting the terms. Since the article was published 2005, it has been sourced in multiple media & legal outlets in hopes of keeping the public aware of the trending issue of individuals blindly accepting these license agreements. Unfortunately, against our better efforts, the trend continues.
In 2015, PC Pitstop decided to run their experiment again. The Special Consideration was, once again, added to the PC Matic EULA. After approximately six weeks, and roughly 60,000 downloads, one PC Matic customer came forward acknowledging they had read the Special Consideration. If you go off of those stats alone, only .0017% of users actually read the EULA or Terms and Conditions. Troubling, considering 99.9983% of us have no idea what we have agreed to…
