Do people know what they are agreeing to when they click, 'I agree'?
Claude responded: This is well-documented territory, with some striking survey findings.
Here's a synthesis:
How few people read these agreements
A 2019 Pew Research Center study found that only 9% of adults read privacy policies and terms of service before clicking "I agree," with most citing length and complexity as reasons. A Brookings Institution survey of 2,006 U.S. adults found 32% never read the terms, 39% read them only sometimes, and 64% said they had no confidence about how their data was actually being used. Social Media LabBrookings
What surprises people most, when they do look
1. Forfeiture of content rights. Many users are signing agreements without realizing they are giving away reproduction rights to their own content. Adweek
2. Data sale and third-party sharing. People don't anticipate all the ways that information collected about them can reveal things about them or how it can be used — for instance, a grocery store selling food purchase information to an insurance company, which then uses it to assess health risk. NPR
3. Forced arbitration — the single most documented shock. A University of Michigan study found that more than 99% of consumers who use popular services like Netflix, Cash App, or Hulu had no idea they were subject to forced arbitration. Fewer than 1% correctly understood that forced arbitration strips them of their Seventh Amendment right to seek accountability through public courts, and fewer than 5% understood they could not appeal a legally wrong or biased decision. NCLC
A 2015 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau study found that three out of four consumers were unaware that the agreements they sign contain forced arbitration clauses that deny them a day in court, allow companies to forgo paying refunds, and even permit continued harmful practices. Public Knowledge
4. Class-action waivers. A 2019 study found that of the largest 100 U.S. companies, 81 had imposed arbitration agreements on customers, and 78 included language barring class-action lawsuits — with an estimated 826 million consumer arbitration agreements in force as of 2018. Companies prefer arbitration because it avoids the massive damage awards and public accountability that class actions can create. Consumer Reports
5. Opt-out theater. Some companies nominally allow users to opt out of arbitration — but only by writing a physical letter by postal mail within 30 days of signing up, a condition so obscure it is effectively meaningless. Consumer Reports
6. Surveillance beyond what users imagined. Even FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel publicly stated she didn't recall consenting to location surveillance when she signed up for wireless service — illustrating how even technically sophisticated users are caught off guard by the scope of data collection embedded in telecom agreements. Public Knowledge
The structural reason this persists
Social media terms of service average about 6,100 words — enough to fill 13–22 pages — and require roughly a high school junior's reading level to comprehend. As one Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney put it, they're designed not to be read: super-long, fine print, and structurally disorganized, with important terms buried so that people just click yes because they want to get to what they came to do. MediumConsumer Reports
The arbitration finding is probably the most practically consequential surprise — most people assume that if a company seriously wrongs them, they can sue or join a class action. In reality, for most digital services, they've already waived that right before they even opened the app.
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