Terms of Service: The Length of Common Digital Contracts

Do you take the time to read the terms of service before you agree to when downloading the latest app or software?

Of course you do…

The world is awash with apps and internet services that ask potential users to agree to a service agreement. Most people click on ‘agree’ and move on, knowing that reading the service agreements could put them to sleep and defer their favorite internet fix.

Taking inspiration from designer Dima Yarovinsky’s project titled I Agree, today’s post visualizes the length of service agreements, by counting the words and calculating how long it would take users to read each one.

Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That

The average reading speed of most adults is 200 to 250 words per minute (wpm). College students, probably because they are very studious and not skimming, move that pace up to around 300 words per minute. For the sake of this analysis, we calculated reading times based on 240 wpm.

App/Service Word Count How many minutes to read? (240 wpm) Microsoft 15,260 63.5 Spotify 8,600 35.8 Niantic (Pokemon Go) 8,466 35.2 TikTok 7,459 31.4 Apple (Media Services) 7,314 30.5 Zoom 6,891 28.7 Tinder 6,215 25.9 Slack 5,782 24.1 Uber 5,658 23.6 Twitter 5,633 23.5 Bumble 5,442 22.7 Snapchat 4,935 20.6 Linkedin 4,346 18.1 Facebook 4,132 17.2 Google 3,459 14.4 Amazon 3,416 14.2 YouTube 3,308 13.7 Reddit 3,267 13.6 Dropbox 2,704 11.3 Netflix 2,628 11.0 Instagram 2,451 9.7

The service agreement for Microsoft stands out at the top of the list with an agreement that would take over an hour to read — a bit less time than it would take to read Shakespeare’s Macbeth. To be fair, this service agreement does seem to cover the company’s entire suite of products.

These agreements are an insight into the legal mumbo jumbo that exists when it comes to regulating the use of these apps. There are a multitude of agreements that go even further into depth about what rules govern developers, online cash transactions and much more. The average American would need to set aside almost 250 hours to properly read all the digital contracts they accept while using online services.

Regardless, users may feel like they are wasting time reviewing a contract that can neither change or refuse—or more vitally, even comprehend.

Not All Text is Equal: The Flesch Reading-Ease Test

Apparently dealing with some of his own textual frustration, a Dr. Rudolf Flesch observed that some text, in particular legal language, appeared to be written to make reading as difficult as humanly possible.

Long sentences filled with arcane words can drag out simple sentences and discourage comprehension. Flesch wanted to measure the variability in reading comprehension — and by studying different kinds of writing, he developed a formula to determine readability and forever scorn lawyers.

In the Flesch Reading-Ease test, higher scores indicate material that is easier to read. Lower numbers mark passages that are more difficult to read. The formula for the Flesch Reading-Ease Score (FRES) test is:

The readability score uses two metrics:

The numbers of words per sentence The number of syllables per word

Based on this score, a text would correspond to a particular education level.

Score Grade Avg. Words per sentence Syllables per 100 words 100-90 5th grade 8 123 90.0-80.0 6th grade 11 131 90.0-70.0 7th grade 14 139 70.0-60.0 8th and 9th grade 17 147 60.0-50.0 10 to 12th grade 21 155 50.0-30.0 College 25 167 30.0-0.0 College graduate 29 192

So how do the service agreements in our sample rank in terms of the Flesch Reading-Ease test?

App/Service Flesch Reading Ease Score Equivalent Grade Level Facebook 56 10 to 12th grade Google 56 10 to 12th grade Instagram 54 10 to 12th grade Linkedin 54 10 to 12th grade Microsoft 54 10 to 12th grade Snapchat 54 10 to 12th grade Dropbox 51 10 to 12th grade Bumble 50 College level YouTube 50 College level Reddit 48 College level Apple Media Services 47 College level Tinder 46 College level Amazon 45 College level Netflix 45 College level TikTok 44 College level Spotify 44 College level Zoom 42 College level Uber 40 College level Twitter 39 College level Niantic (Pokemon Go) 39 College level Slack 36 College level

While not the most difficult to read, they definitely include a fair amount of legalese that helps discourage reading. The length and the difficulty of reading these agreements makes them practically useless to the average person.

This is a problem because it undermines basic concepts of contracts and informed consent. Users are giving up their rights without their knowledge.

Terms of Service: You Are the Product

These apps and software are the forefront of the data collection for a multi-billion dollar industry.

Individual user activity and information get easily collected and stored, creating databases of user patterns. This type of behavioral information makes marketers salivate, allowing them target their products to their ideal audience at lower costs than traditional advertising.

Do you know what you have agreed to?