Reading the Facebook privacy policy is “like engaging with ‘Shakespeare’ ” according to a British committee, who says that social media sites should do more to ensure that users understand exactly what is being done with their data.

The British parliament’s Science and Technology Committee has issued a report titled “Responsible Use of Data,” which criticizes social media sites like Facebook and Twitter for their dense and difficult to understand privacy policies.

The report said:

We have not been convinced that the users of social media platforms are fully aware of how their data might be used and what redress they may, or may not have if they disagree with how an organisation exploits that data.

The main issue, the committee says, is that the privacy policies are written in complicated legal jargon, which is “drafted by lawyers, to be used in American court rooms.” They say the policies are designed more to protect the companies from lawsuits than to serve their users.

The report recommends that the government step in to set up standards for clarity in data policies. It notes that they had been successful in the past, using the example of health warnings on cigarettes.

Working in good faith

The report does note that the committee is pleased to see that the industry seems willing to work toward simplifying terms and providing better resources to educate users on how their private data is stored and used.

Facebook Inc., for example, recently released a series of tutorials called “Privacy Basics,” which breaks down the different functions of the social media site in easy to understand slideshows.

Facebook’s Privacy Basics tutorials break up the use of private data into three categories: “What others see about you,” “How others interact with you,” and “What you see.” This helps users understand actually who can see their Facebook posts the ways in which other people can contact them through the site.

Knowing the details behind how social media data is shared concerns more than government snooping alone.

Information shared on Facebook has been used to scam and steal from users in the past, and it has even been involved in violent crimes where people used social media either to track victims down or to lure them to secluded places.