id,claim,value,unit,scope,data_period,source_publisher,source_title,source_url,accessed
F1,"The median privacy policy analyzed in 2008 ran 2,514 words, with a middle range of about 2,071 to 3,112 words.",2514,words,"Median across a sample of popular website privacy policies, US, 2008",2008,I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society,The Cost of Reading Privacy Policies (McDonald & Cranor),https://lorrie.cranor.org/pubs/readingPolicyCost-authorDraft.pdf,2026-09-25
F2,The same 2008 study estimated an average of about 10 minutes to read one privacy policy.,10,minutes,"Estimated reading time for an average-length policy, US, 2008",2008,I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society,The Cost of Reading Privacy Policies (McDonald & Cranor),https://lorrie.cranor.org/pubs/readingPolicyCost-authorDraft.pdf,2026-09-25
F3,"McDonald and Cranor estimated that reading every privacy policy an average internet user encountered in a year (about 1,462 unique sites) would take roughly 244 hours.",244,hours per year,"Average US internet user, 2008 browsing habits",2008,I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society,The Cost of Reading Privacy Policies (McDonald & Cranor),https://lorrie.cranor.org/pubs/readingPolicyCost-authorDraft.pdf,2026-09-25
F4,"A widely-repeated media figure claims it would take 76 eight-hour workdays a year to read every privacy policy you agree to, credited to the same 2008 study.",76,eight-hour workdays per year,"As stated by TIME/Techland, 2012, citing the McDonald & Cranor research",2012 reporting on 2008 data,TIME (Techland),You'd Need 76 Work Days to Read All Your Privacy Policies Each Year,https://techland.time.com/2012/03/06/youd-need-76-work-days-to-read-all-your-privacy-policies-each-year/,2026-09-25
F5,"As of 2023, the average privacy policy across the top 20 most-visited websites in 19 countries ran 6,461 words globally, or 6,938 words for the US-specific sample, and took a little over 27 to 29 minutes to read.",6938,words (US sample),"Top 20 most-visited websites, US, 2023",2023,NordVPN,Privacy Policy Study,https://nordvpn.com/blog/privacy-policy-study-us/,2026-09-25
F6,The same 2023 NordVPN study found that reading the privacy policies of the 96 websites an average person visits monthly would take about 46.6 hours in the US.,46.6,hours per month,"US, based on 96 monthly website visits, 2023",2023,NordVPN,Privacy Policy Study,https://nordvpn.com/blog/privacy-policy-study-us/,2026-09-25
F7,Annualizing NordVPN's 2023 monthly reading-time estimate gives roughly 70 eight-hour workdays a year to read every privacy policy an average person encounters today.,70,eight-hour workdays per year,"Computed from F6, US, 2023 browsing habits",2023,Computed by Privacy Statement Generator from NordVPN's 2023 data,N/A (derived figure),https://nordvpn.com/blog/privacy-policy-study-us/,2026-09-25
F8,"In a 2023 nationally representative US survey (n=5,101), 56% of respondents said they accept privacy policies without reading them 'always, almost always, or often.'",56,percent,"US adult internet users, May 2023",2023-05-15 to 2023-05-21,"Statista (survey, publisher not otherwise named on the page)","Frequency of accepting privacy policies without reading them, US",https://www.statista.com/statistics/1422713/privacy-policies-accept-without-reading-us-frequency,2026-09-25
F9,"In a 2019 Axios/SurveyMonkey poll (n=4,048 US adults), 56% said they 'always' or 'usually' accept privacy policies without reading them, and 46% of 18-24-year-olds said they skip reading every time versus 15% of adults 65+.",56,percent,"US adults, February 2019",2019-02-06 to 2019-02-11,Axios / SurveyMonkey,Privacy policies are read by an aging few,https://www.axios.com/2019/02/28/few-people-read-privacy-policies-survey,2026-09-25
F10,"A 2023 large-scale academic study found privacy policy URLs are accessible on only 34% of the 7 million organization websites analyzed, meaning roughly two-thirds have no working privacy policy at all.",34,percent,"7 million organization websites, global, analysis published 2023",2023,Association for Computing Machinery (ACM DocEng 2023),"Privacy Lost and Found: An Investigation at Scale of Web Privacy Policy Availability (Srinath, Sundareswara, Venkit, Giles & Wilson)",https://doi.org/10.1145/3573128.3604902,2026-09-25
F11,"The longest single privacy policy in NordVPN's 2023 sample was Meta's (covering Facebook and Instagram), at 19,434 words, requiring nearly 82 minutes to read.",19434,words,"Meta's privacy policy, top-20 website sample, 2023",2023,NordVPN,Privacy Policy Study,https://nordvpn.com/blog/privacy-policy-study-us/,2026-09-25