Ask YC: Question about writing Terms & Conditions (getting users to read them)
I usually skip any Terms & Conditions for 99% of the stuff I sign up for on the web. There are three reasons for this:
1. They are hard to read, as they are usually a list of clauses and subclauses in legal terms.
2. I don't have the time, usually it's something small like a forum account or trying out some new web-app.
3. I've never actually had any scenario in my life where having read the Terms & Conditions would somehow have made a difference for me (in any way).
These three reasons combined are very strong, and probably apply to a lot of people as well.
One thing I have noticed is that I have read the Terms & Conditions (in abbreviated and easy to read form) every time Google wrote some thing like "this is not the usual yadda yadda!" They have done this for several of their apps and services that touched on privacy concerns (e.g., data aggregation by Google Toolbar).
This leads me to the following question. Would it be a good idea to have two huge buttons right above my T&C, "English" and "Legalese", with the default set to the former? English would provide a nice little blurb that summed it up in a few sentences, and clicking "Legalese" would do a Javascript layover that actually listed the clauses.
I am of course thinking that yes, that is a good idea, but I am asking because (1) I have not seen anyone do anything like this or anything similar (hence, is there some reason this would not be a good thing?), and (2) if the user clicks "Accept" having only read the English blurb without clicking "Legalese", is it still legally binding?
I guess a corollary to my question is why isn't this being done frequently?