There are tens of thousands of words, dozens of major clauses and several sub-clauses——
Can you focus on the lengthy App User Agreement?
Our reporter Huang Hongtao
"Worker's Daily" (April 21, 2022 Edition 06)
reading tips
Recently, the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission conducted a small survey on the reading status of the App user agreement.
The results show that most of the app user agreements are long and complex, and the bolded clauses are difficult to play a significant role in reminding consumers.
Lawyers suggest that important clauses be listed separately, so that consumers can read the important content in the standard clauses without barriers.
Before using the app, have you carefully read the user agreement and privacy agreement?
From January 1 to April 10, 2022, the Jiangsu Consumer Network Public Opinion Monitoring Center monitored a total of 8,020 sensitive public opinions related to App user agreements and privacy agreements in the province.
Consumers' "slots" are mainly concentrated in: when downloading and using the app for the first time, the user must click "I have read and agree to the user agreement and privacy policy" before continuing to use it; the user agreement can often contain tens of thousands of words or even tens of thousands of words; in the user agreement Contains important clauses, which are not clearly marked, and may contain overlord clauses, which will hinder consumers' rights protection.
The current 10,000-word agreement hides a mystery
The reporter experienced a variety of apps and found that many apps must click "I read and agree" to the relevant user agreement when downloading and using them, otherwise they cannot be registered for use.
The reporter opens a well-known shopping app, selects a product at random and clicks to buy. At this time, the new user registration page pops up. Only by checking the relevant terms of service, user service agreement, privacy terms, and authentication service terms, it will pop up. You can register successfully and proceed with the purchase operation.
The content of these clauses is very long, dozens of major clauses are surrounded by several sub-clauses, and there are also some technical terms.
The reporter read the terms of service "biting the bullet", one of which reads: "Once you register a user account, it is deemed that you agree to *** (the platform) and/or its affiliates through text messages or emails, voice calls, etc. Send the corresponding product advertisement information, promotional offers and other marketing information to the mobile phone number or email address you filled in during registration; if you do not agree to send, you can unsubscribe through the corresponding unsubscribe function.”
Some media have concluded that some apps take the opportunity to "dig a hole", and consumers can easily fall into the content of the agreement if they do not agree with the content of the agreement. Five traps such as forwarding to a third party.
Some netizens counted the privacy agreements of several apps in the app market, and found that the longest of these privacy policies is close to 18,000 words, and the shortest ones are 6,000 to 7,000 words, with an average of about 13,000 words.
At an average reading speed of about 300 words per minute, it takes more than 40 minutes to read on average.
The Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Committee recently conducted a small survey on the reading status of the App user agreement and found that some user agreements have a prompting effect on consumers.
Some netizens complained: "The most common lie used by contemporary young people is 'I have read and agreed to the user agreement'" "If I don't agree, I can't use it. Do I have a choice?" "Those who can read it are warriors and can understand it. All of them are doctors”…
Complaining about the invisible overlord clause is too unreasonable
In early April, a consumer bought a pair of shoes in a shopping app, but he chose to refund because of wrong information, and found that he was refunded 28 yuan less.
After investigation, it turns out that the App "Instructions to Buyers" has a description of the relevant liquidated damages.
The reporter checked and found that the shopping platform does have the "Notes to Buyers" at the bottom of the order submission page, and the default "submission of the order means agreeing to the "Notes to Buyers".
Click on the "Notes to Buyers", the content is very lengthy. In the fifth item "Buyer Cancellation of Order", there is a description of the relevant liquidated damages fee, which stipulates: If the buyer cancels the order within 30 minutes after the successful payment, the fee to be paid is 0 yuan; if the buyer successfully pays for more than 30 minutes and cancels the order before the seller ships, the fee is 28 yuan...
This consumer believes that other online shopping platforms will refund the full amount of the order cancelled before the seller ships it. Since the shopping platform has such a difference, it is even more important to remind buyers to pay attention to it in a prominent place.
The platform only displays the "Instructions to Buyers" on the order submission interface, and the description of liquidated damages is submerged in many terms and conditions, making it difficult for buyers to notice.
And after the refund, 28 yuan was deducted without any prompt, until the user checked the bill and found that "this is very unreasonable".
The reporter learned from the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Committee that there are many similar complaints.
In January this year, a consumer placed an order on a data recovery app for 98 yuan to restore a mobile phone video. When the last step was reached, the staff asked for an additional 298 yuan through the WeChat channel. The reasons were: time-consuming and difficult .
Consumers do not agree with the temporary price increase. The customer service said that Article 7 of the user agreement has been marked, but consumers believe that "the App page and the customer service staff did not emphasize this clause, and this invisible overlord clause is very unreasonable."
It is suggested that important clauses should be prominently indicated
According to paragraph 1 of Article 26 of the Consumer Rights Protection Law, if an operator uses standard terms in business activities, it shall draw consumers' attention to the quantity and quality of goods or services, price or fee, time limit and method of performance, Safety precautions and risk warnings, after-sales service, civil liability, etc. that have a major stake in consumers, and explain them in accordance with consumers' requirements.
"Privacy agreements and user agreements with 10,000 characters are really incapable of being read by ordinary consumers," said Xia Lei, a public welfare lawyer for consumer rights protection of the Jiangsu Consumer Protection Commission. Text and a more reasonable way to present, fulfill the obligation of prompting."
Once, when Xia Lei used Alipay to pay parking fees, a "personal information protection reminder" popped up on his mobile phone, prompting the platform to obtain the payment number information and transmit it to the charging unit to ask users for their consent.
Xia Lei believes that "it is a good way to remind consumers of important information in the form of pop-up windows."
The Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Committee found in the investigation that some apps have developed related functions to facilitate consumers to read.
For example, new users who use the JD.com App to purchase goods must also check the JD.com Privacy Policy.
However, when you open the settings of the Jingdong App, you can see the options of "Privacy Policy Brief", "Personal Information Collection List", "App Permission Description" and "Third Party Shared Personal Information List" at the bottom.
Entering the page, you can see that some information related to consumers is displayed in the form of pictures, texts and tables.
"The development of similar functions can better protect consumers' right to know, which is worth advocating." Xia Lei believes that the appearance of this function also shows that the App user agreement can actually be outlined and easy to read.
"App user agreements are necessary to 'reduce weight'." Xia Lei suggested that in the face of long-criticized user agreements and privacy agreements that are lengthy and difficult to read, Internet companies should respond positively and provide important clauses for complex agreements. Abstract, or present important clauses involving rights and obligations in the form of concise and easy-to-understand forms, pictures and texts, so that consumers can read the important content of the standard clauses without barriers.
At the same time, consumers should also improve their awareness of rights protection, pay more attention to the content of relevant agreements, and understand their rights and obligations.