by: Patrick May | mercurynews.com

Smartphone in hand, you tap into your local app store. You click on a nifty tool that promises to massage your belly and pat your head at the same time. But just as you're about to download it, you decide to click on that little Terms of Service icon. And you're hit with a phone-book-sized data dump of not-so-fine fine print.

On top of all the privacy battles already under way across the Internet, the boom in mobile apps has ramped things up even more, with waves of service terms and security policies at every new download.