Social networking sites force their users to accept highly questionable terms. By accepting these, users give up their rights to control their own personal information. The social networking sites know all about you and your friends, and they are going to sell the personal information further.
This emerged in a study on social media that SINTEF performed for The Consumer Council of Norway. The mission was to find out how social media, search engines and online shopping influence the consumers’ position in the digital market.
Using surveys and interviews with both developers and users, SINTEF have revealed the population's experiences and attitudes to privacy and consumer protection in social media.
¨The results show that 67% of Norwegian Internet users are concerned about the consequences of sharing personal information online. Most web users have a limited understanding of how social media works. Developers on the other hand claims that the services are dependent of their users’ trust, and that consumer power is sufficient to deal with growing privacy concerns.
The report concludes that because the network technology is so complex and developing so quickly, legal protection is not sufficient itself. It is also necessary that individuals act consciously¸ and that interest groups are working to protect the consumers’ privacy online.
The survey shows that 66% of Norwegian Internet users are using social networks. Facebook is the most popular, and 35% of the population are daily users. 94% say it is important to have control over the personal information they provide online. In spite of this, users rarely read the terms and conditions governing their privacy and content they share on social networking sites.
The study also shows that 50% of users aged 15-30 years will provide even more personal information about themselves on the web in the future.
- Consumers spend increasingly more time on social networking sites, which surround a large extent of the users lives. The services are free, but users still pay a high price – by providing personal information. The social networking sites have become very efficient information harvesters with their users consent, says Hans Marius Graasvold, assistant director of The Consumer Council of Norway.
By accepting the terms on these sites, the users give up their rights concerning their own personal information and content - and further resale of this information. Often the terms and conditions are designed in a way that makes it impossible for the users to understand the scope of what one accepts.
- Facebook's terms cover 11 pages, and LinkedIn 14 pages. If you use both these services, you must read 21,225 words, spending one and a half hour reading these with a reading speed of 200 words a minute. In addition, the terms are usually written in a complicated language. Common sense dictates that regular users cannot handle and understand all this information, says Graasvold.
The survey also shows that users have great difficulties understanding the scope of the terms, and it is often complicated to change the privacy settings.
- Even if you want to protect your personal information, this is very difficult as the settings are often hidden. 58% of the Internet users believe they have lost all control over how personal information is collected and used by commercial companies”, says Hans Marius Graasvold.
The Consumer Council of Norway is now hoping that users of social networking sites will become more aware of the unreasonable terms they must agree on to use these services.
- 73% of users between 15-30 years rarely or very rarely read the terms before accepting them. Also, 70% of users between 15-30 say they are most likely to share even more personal information online in the future. That should serve as a heads up to consumer and privacy advocates, says Graasvold.
- We hope the consumers will become more critical, and set higher demands to the social networking sites where they participate. This way, we can make sure consumer unfriendly services such as Facebook and LinkedIn get an incentive to change its conditions for the better, says Graasvold.
Although users of social networking sites will become more aware of the circumstances covering terms and privacy, this is not enough. The Consumer Council of Norway will therefore launch both national and international consumer policy work to change this dysfunctional market.
- To ensure a consumer-friendly development, the relationship between industry and consumers must be balanced. We live in an era where terms and conditions increasingly govern how services and products can be used. One of the most important consumer political battles in the future will relate to consumer rights and the terms governing the use of various products or services, says Graasvold.
The Consumer Council’s hopes that privacy and social networking sites now will be put on the agenda.
- Recently in Norway, services like iam.no, equivalent to pipl.com, and the Data retention directive have been discussed in the light of privacy. How social networking sites deal with privacy and their policies regarding this is in our opinion just as important, as it affects millions of people every day. The time is now ripe for a broad discussion regarding privacy, terms and social networking sites”, says Hans Marius Graasvold.
The Consumer Council of Norway will present the survey at an international conference on consumer privacy in Brussels the 12th of November.
We live in an era where terms and conditions increasingly govern how services and products can be used. One of the most important consumer political battles in the future will relate to consumer rights and the terms governing the use of various products or services, says Hans Marius Graasvold, assistant director of The Consumer Council of Norway. (Foto: Knut Falch/Scanpix)
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