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If I had to guess, I’ve agreed to hundreds of terms and conditions over the course of my life, and I’ve read approximately zero percent of them. There was this one time I accidentally read a couple of words because what I was downloading required me to scroll to the bottom of the agreement before I was allowed to continue, and hardly a day goes by when I don’t regret it.
A couple of years ago, South Park warned us all about the potential perils of not reading the legalese that accompanies virtually every program and app in existence, but if a recent study is any indication, most of us could not care less about the possibility of becoming part of a human centipede because we failed to read the fine print.
Deloitte surveyed 2,000 people to see how many of them have actually taken the time to read end-user license agreements before clicking “Agree,” and it turns out that 91% of users are more than happy to admit they simply don’t give a shit about what they’re consenting to. It turns out that the generation who is most familiar with technology is also more cavalier about ignoring EULAs, as 97% of people aged 18-34 don’t bother to peruse them.
Deloitte
It’s worth noting terms and conditions are a bit of a catch-22, as it would be virtually impossible to be a functioning member of modern society without consenting but also impossible to contribute to the world if you took the time to read every agreement you came across. It would take you nine hours to get through the terms and conditions that accompany a Kindle, which is probably more time than you’d spend reading any book you’ll ever download.
Ain’t no one got time for that.