The median US adult reads at a grade 5 level. That's a problem in and of itself. However when I paste Apple's privacy policy at https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/en-ww/ into https://readabilityformulas.com/freetests/six-readability-fo... it comes out with a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of 14.4. There are a variety of readability measures at that site, and for this document they varied between grade 12 and college graduate.
It is therefore demonstrably impossible for the average American to read that policy. EVEN IF THEY WANTED TO.
Now another poster claims that this is because of what is legally required. That is nonsense. It is because nobody cares about making it readable. Let me demonstrate. Here is a sample paragraph from the document with a reading level of grade 13.4:
You may be asked to provide your personal information anytime you are in contact with Apple or an Apple affiliated company. Apple and its affiliates may share this personal information with each other and use it consistent with this Privacy Policy. They may also combine it with other information to provide and improve our products, services, content, and advertising. You are not required to provide the personal information that we have requested, but, if you chose not to do so, in many cases we will not be able to provide you with our products or services or respond to any queries you may have.
Here is a rewritten version that is significantly shorter, more readable (grade 7.3), and actually says more:
When you contact Apple or its affiliated companies, we may ask you questions about yourself. Examples that we commonly ask for include your name, age, address, and credit card number. You do not have to answer us. But if you don't, we may not be able to answer your questions or provide you with our services.
Your answers can be shared between Apple and its affiliates as long as we follow this Privacy Policy. We can also combine your answers with other data that we have. We do this to provide and improve our products, services, content, and advertising.
I could easily improve the readability more, but my point is made. The hardest part of the exercise was making the rewritten version long enough to get a readability score.
I think it would be very reasonable to pass a law saying that any consumer contract with a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of over grade 8 should not be enforceable. The reasoning being that there cannot have been a meeting of minds when few consumers are even able to understand the language which the contract is written in. And if there were such a law, I guarantee that lawyers would quickly learn how to put their thoughts in plain writing instead of legalese.