The Web3 Foundation claims that it takes British families 10.4 working days to read through the privacy policy of a digital service provider's day-long services.

A new study shows that it would take more than 10 full working days for a British family to read through all the details of the privacy policies and terms of use related to their ordinary day-to-day activities.

Zurich, September 28, 2026 / PRNewswire / — According to a new study by the Web3 Foundation, it would take more than 10 full working days for a typical British household to read through the detailed privacy policies associated with the digital services and systems they use on an ordinary day.

This hypothetical sample family involves 257 documents, totaling 1,184,835 words. Calculated based on reading time, it would take about 83 hours to read, which is equivalent to 10.4 eight-hour workdays; this word count is also 34% more than the total of 884,647 words in William Shakespeare's complete works.

This technical report is titled “Everyday Surveillance : What One Ordinary Day May Reveal About You”. The report analyzes six sample households in the UK and the US. Researchers identified 1,195 documents related to consumer privacy and terms of use, with a total word count of over 5.38 million.

Of a total of 143 companies and organizations, 83% mentioned that personal data could be used for marketing or advertising, 80% stated that this data could be combined with other information, 71% indicated that it could be shared with business partners, and at least 24% of the documents specified that user data could be used to train or improve artificial intelligence or machine learning systems.

The study indicates that this work is not a nationwide survey, nor is it 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 the US within several hypothetical scenarios supported by evidence.

Web3 The founder of the foundation, Gavin Wood, stated: "We have done what people are always told to do: read the privacy policies. Taking this British sample family as an example, it would take more than 10 working days to read them in a normal day. This information is not secret at all. On the contrary, it is publicly and fully disclosed, but the sheer volume of the disclosure has ultimately become a form of concealment."

Web3, Vice President of Technical Operations at the Foundation, Bill Laboon stated: "What is truly remarkable is that such a large amount of data can be generated around completely ordinary digital activities. The report raises the question: Are we able to design services in different ways, so that people can prove what they need to prove without the need for systematic disclosure of underlying information?"

For the technical report and its methodology, please refer to: https :// web3.foundation / insights /

For media inquiries: Tom Collins, [ email protected ], +44 7904 496117

About the Web3 Foundation: The Web3 Foundation advocates for building a more equitable internet.