Excitable BBC 'journalist' in overstating the case shock!
According to Zoe Kleinman, the T&C for several popular apps are longer than Harry Potter
, which sounds daunting. The reality, as is so often the case, is more prosaic.
It appears that, when combined, the terms and conditions of thirteen popular apps amount to a joint total of 128,415 words - longer than any one of the first three Harry Potter novels
. The longest single terms and conditions document was for Microsoft Teams, clocking in at a mere 18,282 words, or 2½ hours of reading time.
What is more worrying is the fact that many, including those for apps aimed at children, require a university-level reading ability. Given the word count and complexity of these documents, making them fucking tedious to read, it's clear that software companies and developers are less interested in informed consent
than obfuscation through legalese.
At some point, someone will challenge the legality of verbose legal documents aimed at the public, and how enforceable they really are. Until then, we'll all continue to simply select I AGREE and move on.