Google’s new privacy policy will dictate its terms of use across all of its platforms. It’s nice to see a site cutting down its terms and conditions, but others rival Shakespeare plays with their word counts.

Google claims its all-in-one policy (covering search, YouTube, Picasa, Chrome and Android) makes matters simple for us, but the reality is that most users will never read the T&Cs themselves.

Google insists that having one policy to cover multiple products makes for a ‘simple and beautiful experience,’ but this hasn’t gone down well with legal experts, with one data regulator raising concerns that the new policy could be in breach of European data protection laws.

The reality of reading terms and conditions

Google’s new privacy policy is relatively trim by the standards of the terms and conditions we’ve seen from some of the major online players. It clocks in at 2,270 words – not a light read, but better than Facebook, iTunes or Paypal’s lengthy tomes.

However, if you combine this policy with Google’s general terms of use you’re looking at a document 4,099 words in length. Factor in the additional privacy policies for Google Chrome, Wallet and Books, and you’re staring at 10,640 words – the length of the average undergraduate dissertation. Is that something most users are likely to sit down and read?

According to a YouGov poll conducted by Big Brother Watch, only 12% of Google service users claim to have read the new privacy conditions, which have been available for a preview in the weeks leading up to their launch.

To read or not to read, that is the question

Paypal takes the biscuit, however, with a total word count for its T&Cs of 36,275 words (when you factor in its 9,204-word privacy policy, acceptable use policy, eBay shipping services policy and UK billing agreement terms).

To put that in context? It’s longer than Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Apple iTunes isn’t much better. Some 2,456 words of privacy terms plus a further 17,516 of terms of use add up to 19,972 words of reading – longer than Macbeth.

Facebook’s 6,910 words of privacy policy and 4,285 words of terms of use add up to a ripping yarn some 11,195 words (around the same as Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity).

On the shorter end of things, Twitter’s terms and privacy policy reaches just 4,445 words (about half the length of Roald Dahl’s The Twits). Social news site Reddit’s user agreement and privacy policy are together slightly longer at 5,706 words (the same as reading Grimms’ fairy tales Cinderella and Hansel & Gretel one after another).

T&Cs should be easier to read

Is it any surprise most internet users click ‘accept’ without reading the full terms and conditions, even when these cover all-important matters of privacy?

These days, T&Cs are thrown at you on screens designed to fit in the palm of your hand – the next Apple iOS update for iPhones will be downloadable directly from the device itself. Would you have scroll through iOS 5’s 13,366 word T&Cs on your phone?

Whether it’s down to the staggering word counts or complex legal jargon, it’s not really fair to expect users to read through terms and conditions in full before agreeing to use a service.

Personally, I’d like to see some headline terms and conditions brought to the fore and explained in approachable language before opting to use a service. If the terms are important enough to require fine print, then surely they ought to deserve clear print as well.

Does the length of online T&Cs put you off reading them? Yes, if they're really long (74%, 484 Votes) I never read them anyway (23%, 154 Votes) No, I always read them (3%, 20 Votes) Total Voters: 658