Comment by ethin
1 day ago
IMO any contract, waver, etc., shouldn't be legally enforceable unless the signatory has actually read it. It's always seemed to me to be one hell of a pathway of abuse (in a way) to just be able to bind someone to be legally required to do anything you want, for example, by just relying on them not reading the thing they signed.
How to know if they actually read it? The signature implies that the contract has been read, understood, and accepted. I see no need for any alternative mechanism.
Well, if you presented them with list of 100 partners each with 20 page of privacy policies and they accept it within 10 seconds it should be tricky to argue that user actually read it all.
You could, for example, require that user answers very specific questions regarding 10 randomly selected partners and how exactly they can use the data ("is partner x allowed to build very detailed profile of you and target you with political adverts that are designed to manipulate you?").
If you did this people would only use the same half dozen sites and competitors would emerge.
We're borderline already there today when the cost of switching is typing a different url at the top of the screen. You add some mandatory 20 minute wait and you'll never see a new site again.
Google and Facebook would love it though.
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Well for instance if the other party is pressuring you to sign it then it can't be assumed that you had adequate time to read it and understand it
Contract law of every civilised land already has a process for considering and accounting for duress.
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Is that not what the courts are for? I imagine that if a court had to enforce a requirement like this, knowledge would generally be the best kind of proof. If you know what the contract said (or even it's terms in general) that would be enough.
The reason this isn't done is because corporations legal departments love writing 10-100 page contracts that absolutely nobody is going to read.