Many experts have criticized online companies' privacy policies as being too complicated in the past, and now a new study shows just how hard a time consumers have deciphering the language in these documents.
The privacy policies maintained by Facebook and Google are often more difficult for consumers to understand than notices from the government and the legalese in their credit card bills, according to a new study from the branding firm
Siegel and Gale. On a scale of 0 to 100, users' comprehension of Facebook's policy was rated a 39, slightly ahead of Google's 36.
Meanwhile, the same readers' comprehension of government notices scored a 70, and credit card bills garnered a rating of 68, the report said. Only 33 percent of those polled said they said they felt comfortable using Facebook after reading through the privacy policies.
Eduard Goodman, chief privacy officer for
Identity Theft 911, has a blog about the ways consumers can better protect their private personal information online, particularly when using popular social networks.
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