My IT guy said 'just click the box, nobody reads those' and 4 months later my email was in a spam blast to 12,000 people

Aaron Hunt · 2026-09-10T10:50:04.293265+00:00

Back in March a buddy who does IT for a bank in Phoenix laughed at me for reading a 9 page privacy update from a photo app I use. He said nobody reads that stuff and clicking accept is just part of using the internet. So I stopped reading them, clicked yes on everything for a few apps I barely used. In July I got a notice that one of those apps sold my contact list and location history to a data broker, and my email ended up in a spam blast to 12,000 people. I spent two weeks changing passwords and still get junk texts from numbers in Ohio. I mean maybe I'm being dramatic but that one lazy click cost me way more time than reading 9 pages ever would. Did your friends ever give you privacy advice that backfired, or is it just me?

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My IT guy said 'just click the box, nobody reads those' and 4 months later my email was in a spam blast to 12,000 people | Data Privacy Confessions - Talk Freely