Reading Terms of Use Agreements and such

Last week and this week, I spent awhile carefully reading the terms of use and privacy policies (and closely related content) of Google, Google+, and Blogger/Blogspot.  It was fairly interesting to me.  I find it interesting to see what they have to clarify and say in these things to protect themselves from legal issues and “thievery,” while also protecting their users and keeping their products appealing.  It's also important to me to know my rights, what's appropriate, and, since it's my belief that we should obey our country's laws here in the U.S.A., to have confidence that I'm following the law.  This is largely due to my belief in the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which includes the Articles of Faith.  The 12^th Article of Faith states, “We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.”

There is pressure on me NOT to always read terms of use agreements, (and associated content) due to how long and difficult they often are to read (thankfully, Google's is well made and, relatively speaking, very reasonably short), and due to my unusually significant, chronic lack of time.  On the other hand, my religious beliefs persuade me to read them, with a little added persuasion from a comment I once read.  The comment said something along the lines of, “Terms of Use Agreements, things that are just like the Bible. Everyone says they agree with them, but very few actually read them.”

Despite the cost to me in time spent, I now can use, and have confidence that I am using, Google and Blogger correctly.  :)