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UK politicians want social networks to explain their terms more clearly

If you've never read the terms and conditions for services like Facebook and Twitter, we can hardly blame you. They're often too long and use confusing jargon to describe their practices. The UK's Science and Technology Select Committee wants something to be done about it, and is now calling for simpler disclosures that explain how your personal data is being used. In its report, the committee says too many terms and conditions are written strictly to tick the necessary legal boxes. The average user skips past them and is then shocked when psychological experiments and other shady practices come to light.

To enforce these changes, the committee is calling on the government to create new guidelines. These would be optional, although companies that sign up would be committing themselves to "clear, concise and simple terms." If simplifying the T&Cs isn't possible, the group of MPs is also calling for the "destination" of user data to be spelled out elsewhere. The government will now need to decide whether it wants to support the report's proposals, although as we've seen with Facebook's privacy policy, some companies are already trying to make the fine print a little more digestible. Terms and conditions are still a massive headache overall, but extra pressure on the industry is definitely welcome.

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