The Web3 Foundation says it would take UK households 10.4 workdays to read the privacy policies of all digital services they use in a day.
A new study shows that it would take an average British household more than 10 full workdays to read all the fine print in privacy policies and terms of service related to their typical daily activities.
Zurich, September 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — According to a new study by the Web3 Foundation, a UK household would need more than 10 full workdays to read the privacy policies of all the digital services and systems it uses in an average day.
This hypothetical sample family involves 257 documents totaling 1,184,835 words. At a reading pace, this amounts to approximately 83 hours, or 10.4 eight-hour workdays; this word count is also 34% higher than the 884,647 words in the complete works of William Shakespeare.
This technical report, titled "Everyday Surveillance: What One Ordinary Day May Reveal About You," analyzes six sample households in the UK and the US. Researchers identified 1,195 documents related to consumer privacy and terms of use, totaling over 5.38 million words.
Among the 143 companies and institutions surveyed, 83% stated that personal data may be used for marketing or advertising, 80% indicated that such data may be combined with other information, 71% mentioned that it may be shared with business partners, and at least 24% of the documents specified that user data may be used to train or improve artificial intelligence or machine learning systems.
The study states that this work is not a nationwide survey and is not intended to describe the practices of all users. It analyzes the data usage capabilities and permissions recorded by common digital services and systems in the UK and US, based on several evidence-supported hypothetical scenarios.
Gavin Wood, founder of the Web3 Foundation, said: “We did exactly what people are always told to do: read the privacy policies. For this British sample household, it would take more than ten workdays just to read through them in an average day. These contents are not secret. On the contrary, they are publicly and fully disclosed—but the sheer volume of disclosure ultimately becomes a way of hiding.”
Bill Laboon, Vice President of Technical Operations at the Web3 Foundation, said: “What’s truly striking is the sheer volume of data that can be generated around entirely ordinary digital activities. The report raises the question: Can we design services differently, allowing people to prove what they need to prove without systematically disclosing underlying information?”
Technical report and methodology available at: https://web3.foundation/insights/
Media inquiries: Tom Collins, [email protected], +44 7904 496117
About the Web3 Foundation: The Web3 Foundation advocates for building a more equitable internet.