According to a recent Deloitte survey, 91 percent of people agree to terms and conditions without reading the legal agreement. While reading through legally complex language may be slow and painful, it’s more important than you think. Here are four reasons why reading entire legal agreements make sense:
Your identity. Companies like Facebook grant itself rights to use your likeness and personal information for targeted advertising unless you catch the clause and take action.
Your work. If you create a presentation using online tools, the agreement might allow the site to use the presentation without your permission.
Your location. Most navigation software tracks your location even when not using their application. The same is true with most newer vehicles. The only way to catch these tracking rights is to read the clause in the agreement.
You're not comfortable with the risks. Data breaches are occurring more often and are hard to prevent. To reduce their exposure to litigation, businesses are continuing to add language to agreements to protect themselves. Your job, as the consumer, is to know these risks when signing up for a new service. The more personal information you provide, the more important it is to understand your legal recourse if the supplier of your service is hacked.