You Never Read ‘Terms and Conditions’ Right? SEE THIS Once
It is practically impossible for most people to read the terms and conditions before installing an app for several reasons.
Firstly, the length of terms and conditions is overwhelming. Many apps have legal agreements running into thousands of words, often longer than academic articles or policy briefs. Reading them carefully would take anywhere from 15 to 60 minutes per app, which is unrealistic when people are quickly downloading apps to use immediately.
Secondly, the language used is highly technical and legalistic. Terms and conditions are written by lawyers to protect companies from liabilities, not to make them user-friendly. They include complex phrases, indirect clauses, and legal jargon that an average person without legal training finds difficult to understand. Even when people attempt to read them, they often give up midway.
Thirdly, there is social and practical pressure. In reality, apps do not allow users to negotiate or modify these terms. The choice is binary: “accept and continue” or “decline and don’t use the app”. Knowing this, people skip reading them because the outcome remains the same – they need the app for work, study, communication, or basic digital functioning.
Lastly, the frequency of updates adds to the impossibility. Apps often update their terms and conditions without notice, asking users to accept them again. Reading each updated version fully would consume excessive time that no one schedules into daily life.
In essence, reading terms and conditions thoroughly before installing apps is impractical due to their excessive length, difficult language, lack of user power to negotiate, and frequent updates. This creates a system where informed consent is more theoretical than real, with people agreeing without understanding what they are actually accepting.
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