Response to “Do You Read Terms Of Service Contracts? Not Many Do, Research Shows”
After listening to this interview, my perspective has really changed on skipping over the terms and conditions of new products. I, like many others, skip right through terms and conditions all of the time because they are always so long, and usually they do not have anything in them that you do not already know. Until they do have something important in them. You will never know if they do or not unless you read the whole thing, which is where they always get you, because companies know that you won’t read them. Companies can put in anything they want to and have the customer agreeing to anything they want, unless the customer takes the time to read the terms and conditions and realizes what they are signing up for. The example given in the interview, about the NSA, is a perfect example of why people need to read the terms and conditions. Only 1 out of 500 people who signed up, read the terms and conditions and realized what they were signing up for. Also, they added a clause that said the customer had to give up their first-born child, which only 2% realized and raised concern. These two examples are just one occurrence of how dangerous it can be to sign up for things without reading what you are signing up for. A lot of companies care more about their incentives than to give people warnings about what the down-side is for signing up for these products or services. Listening to this has definitely opened my eyes to how important it is to make sure you read what you are signing up for.
