This week, I placed an order for Ryze. Last year, I tried another brand of mushroom coffee and enjoyed it, but got burned out on it. I miss drinking mushroom brew instead of coffee first thing in the morning, so we’re trying the other big brand.

After placing my order, they emailed me a confirmation containing free gifts. One was a gratitude app which I was willing to explore, until we got down to the fine print. There was a small paragraph with an empty box just waiting to be checked. They wanted permission to send texts, and share my information with 3rd parties.

That’s a big business referred to as ‘lead sharing’ which is the practice of selling leads to more than one company. If you’ve been contacted by a company you’ve never heard of before, that’s a good indicator your information has been sold.

When placing an order online, I never use my actual phone number. Instead I’ll use a previous one that’s no longer in service. If it’s a company I haven’t used before, I’ll use an old email address that’s rarely checked, because some companies will sell info even if the box remains unchecked. I’ve worked in customer service for decades and have seen horrible things happen to innocent people, especially retirees.

An elderly client called wanting to place an order through one of the companies I work with and offered to give me his credit card number over the phone. I told him I’d email him a link, so he could place his order through a secure server. He said he could email me his credit card info if I’d place the order for him. I told him to never email his card number, but he wasn’t concerned and went onto say his card had been compromised many times. I still shake my head in disbelief over that conversation.

I didn’t check the box and exited the gratitude app, but not using my real phone number has kept my phone quiet from spam calls for years. When my phone makes a sound I know it’s important because I’m careful giving out my number. In a technology driven world the amount of privacy for sale is hidden in the fine print.