The featured article of this blog post is “A lawyer rewrote Instagram’s terms of use ‘in plain English’ so kids would know their privacy rights” by Amy B. Wang. I chose this article because I am interested in what these terms and conditions look like in plain language.
The main point in this article is that social media users do not read terms and conditions because the wording is too complicated and dense. This is an issue, as Wang (2017) explains, because users (especially teens) are signing over certain rights with no understanding of what they are agreeing to (par. 9). The article demonstrated that when many individuals learn about the rights they are signing over, they are more hesitant to agree to the terms and conditions.
One big take away that I get from this article is that it is important for individuals to know what they are agreeing to. So, I would argue that it is essential for terms and conditions to be written in plain language so that their users fully know what they are agreeing to.
This is not the first time the issue of clarity in social media’s terms and conditions has been brought to light. Aron (2014) notes that wording for social media was so dense that the UK parliamentary committee demanded that these social platforms make the wording clearer (par. 1). These complex terms and conditions, as Ashford (2014) explains, are utilized to hide “far-reaching permissions” (par. 2). Cellan-Jones (2014) points out that these complex rules are furthered designed “to protect organisations in the event of legal action rather than to convey information.” (par. 5). The main concern, as Cellan-Jones 2014 notes, is that the terms and conditions stand in as informed consent where data is concerned (par. 7). If the wording of a document is so unclear that members of government cannot understand it, it is unfair to expect teens and young adults to be able to understand it.
One could also make the argument that clarifying the language may not make much difference. Berreby (2017) claims that in one social experiment several college students agreed to give a fake social media website their first-born children because they did not bother to read the terms and conditions (par. 1). However, I would still argue that social media platforms should still provide simplified terms and conditions for its users. One may also argue that this issue is not limited to social media. For example, Aron (2014) notes that banks also use the same dense wording in their contracts (par. 10). The main difference, as Aron (2014) notes, is that there is no way to tell how corporations will use personal data (par. 11).
Regardless of whether users read the terms of use, and regardless of whether other companies have difficult wording in their contracts I believe that social media platforms should simplify their terms and conditions. I also think that other companies should simplify their contracts too, but that is an argument for another day. Individuals should, at the very least, be able to understand what they are agreeing to when they sign these agreements.
References
Aron, J. (2014). Accept without reading.(improving clarity of terms of use in social media)(Technology / Insight). New Scientist, 224(2998). Retrieved from https://web-a-ebscohost-com.proxy.lib.utk.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=fa77c7e4-9f34-47a7-8f1e-6d30a2429fce%40sdc-v-sessmgr01&bdata=JnNjb3BlPXNpdGU%3d#AN=99837651&db=ulh
Ashford,W. (2014). MPs call for clearer social media terms and conditions. Computer Weekly. Retrieved from https://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240235516/MPs-call-for-clearer-social-media-terms-and-conditions
Berreby, D. (2017). Click to agree with what? No one reads terms of service, studies confirm. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/03/terms-of-service-online-contracts-fine-print
Cellan-Jones, R. (2014). Social media told to simplify terms and conditions. BBC News. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30234789
Wang, A. (2017). A Lawyer Rewrote Instagram’s Terms of Use ‘in Plain English’ so Kids Would Know Their Privacy Rights. The Washington Post. Retrieved from www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2017/01/08/a-lawyer-rewrote-instagrams-terms-of-use-in-plain-english-so-kids-would-know-their-privacy-rights/.
Social Informatics 