# We Read 150 Privacy Policies. They Were an Incomprehensible Disaster. - The New York Times

<https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/12/opinion/facebook-google-privacy-policies.html>

- Host: [nytimes.com](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/hosts/nytimes.com/)
- Saved: June 13, 2019 (2019-06-13T22:46:53Z)
- Record: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/b960d0c5a70a/
- JSON: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/b960d0c5a70a.json

## What Jamie wrote

This has some great visualization of various privacy policies. It's telling how companies that tend to have a pro-privacy bend like Craigslist and Duck Duck Go are readable in a couple minutes with high-school level education. Facebook requires 18 minutes and a college level education. CNN and Hulu require you to be a legal professional to understand them. Airbnb is in a world of its own.

> Airbnb’s privacy policy, on the other hand, is particularly inscrutable. It’s full of long, jargon-laden sentences that obscure Airbnb’s data practices and provides cover to use data in expansive ways. For example, here is how Airbnb justifies collecting users’ personal information. Vague language like “adequate performance” and “legitimate interest” allows for a wide range of interpretation, providing flexibility for Airbnb to defend its data practices in a lawsuit while making it harder for users to understand what is being done with their data.

This is where services such as [Terms of Service; Didn't Read](https://tosdr.org) should be able to help crowdsource these intentionally obfuscated documents and turn them into something that normal people can understand. However, these services, like many in the pro-privacy space, aren't exactly taking off like wildfire.

## Facts

- Kind: [Page](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/kinds/page/)

## Appears in

- [WT110: Weekly Thing #110 / Jun 15, 2019](https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/110/), Featured Links 🏅

## Same host

- [How Data (and Some Breathtaking Soccer) Brought Liverpool to the Cusp of Glory - The New York Times](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/fe8d3ce79c00/) (nytimes.com, May 30, 2019)
- [The Making of a YouTube Radical - The New York Times](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/b8c643c379bd/) (nytimes.com, June 9, 2019)
- [In Stores, Secret Bluetooth Surveillance Tracks Your Every Move - The New York Times](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/b4d41aee37a7/) (nytimes.com, June 17, 2019)
- [You Care More About Your Privacy Than You Think - The New York Times](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/a6bd4a9a4bec/) (nytimes.com, June 18, 2019)
- [The Mystery of the Miserable Employees: How to Win in the Winner-Take-All Economy - The New York Times](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/6c96232353b6/) (nytimes.com, June 19, 2019)

## Saved the same week

- [Maker Faire halts operations and lays off all staff | TechCrunch](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/1a824f379ed4/) (techcrunch.com, June 13, 2019)
- [Bond - Mary Meeker's Internet Trends 2019](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/f8802a45c31c/) (bondcap.com, June 13, 2019)
- [Post Death Internet Service – WARREN ELLIS LTD](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/18efa6e5c632/) (warrenellis.ltd, June 13, 2019)
- [The world in which IPv6 was a good design - apenwarr](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/bcd9ce8697b1/) (apenwarr.ca, June 13, 2019)
- [Regulating Big Tech makes them stronger, so they need competition instead - Open Voices](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/dd31bf4bfd55/) (economist.com, June 13, 2019)

## Elsewhere

- Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/12/opinion/facebook-google-privacy-policies.html