The curious test that proved with a bottle of wine that few read what they sign online

A free bottle of wine offer has finally been claimed after being “hidden” for three months in the privacy policy of the website of a British think tank dedicated to tax issues.

Tax Policy Associates added a clause with the offer in February as an “experiment” to see if anyone would actually read all the terms.

The nonprofit’s head, Dan Neidle, shared the story in a post on X (formerly Twitter), explaining that the first person to spot the clause would receive a “bottle of fine wine.”

Neidle — a tax lawyer who has worked on high-profile tax cases, including that of former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi — told the BBC that it was his idea to add the wine offer.

The think tank recently changed the fine print of the privacy policy on its website after the clause was discovered.

“We know no one reads this, because we added in February that we would send a bottle of good wine to the first person who contacted us, and it was only in May that we got a response”, now says a sentence in its privacy policy.

Neidle claims it was her “childish protest”.

“Every company needs to have a privacy policy, and no one reads it.”

“Every tiny coffee shop needs to have a privacy policy on their website, it’s crazy. It’s money being wasted.”

Any company that stores personal data, including small businesses and charities, must have a privacy policy, according to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the body responsible for ensuring the privacy of information about individuals. UK citizens.

It is a fundamental requirement of the country’s 2018 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Neidle said the person who found the text on the site “kind of cheated” because he was trying to write his own policy and so was looking for examples. The person then emailed the organization saying they thought they had lost the bottle of wine, but it was their lucky day.

The lawyer said he had already done something similar when his organization was launched, more than two years ago. At that time, it took four months for anyone to find out.

“We did it again to see if people were paying more attention, and they weren’t,” he added.

But, after all, what was the “good wine” that the website was referring to? The person who found the clause received a bottle of Château de Sales 2013/14, from Pomerol, as a reward.

According to Neidle, her approach was inspired by that used by the band Van Halen, who requested a jar of M&Ms without brown sprinkles as part of their tour requirements.

But it wasn’t out of frivolity or extravagance — musicians included this in the contract as a test to ensure that producers were paying attention to their requests, which often included complicated technical instructions.

“It was a brilliant strategy to see if people were paying attention,” says Neidle.