Smartphones are pretty much another appendage to every individual who uses them.
The device acts as our primary communications device, banking assistant, research and gaming tool, and camera.
It's no wonder why privacy settings are essential. If our phones get into the wrong hands, we are completely vulnerable and our identity is susceptible to stealing.
But besides security concerns, our phones contain other types of "revealing" information that is better left unseen...until it isn't.
Curious to hear from smartphone users who crawled into a hole and never again wanted to see the light of day, Redditor TylerDuuurden asked:
"What's the most embarrassing/cringy thing you've accidentally shown someone, or something they accidentally saw while using your phone or computer?"
It goes without saying that accidentally seeing NSFW content was a frequent example from Redditors.
What The Internet Specialist Saw
"Oh god."
"My internet was down. Had to have the Bell Aliant guy come to fix it. When it was fixed he asked me to just check it was working properly, so I refreshed a tab and it instantly opened the porn I was watching before the internet died."
"As a 21 year old woman that was the most horrifically embarrassing moment of my life."
"He then said 'Is there anything else you need?'"
"And I became worried I was living in the plot to the world's most cliché porn."
– DreyaNova
Sounds Like Pleasure
"During college my girlfriend worked night shifts so I would sometimes crash at her place that way I’d be there when she got off in the mornings. one night her roommates had a few people over to drink and I, being alone, decided to crank one out. Spent about 3-5 mins watching some.. material wondering why the audio wouldn’t work on my phone. Then I hear an eruption of laughter from the kitchen (it was a small apartment). Turns out I was the last one that connected to the bluetooth speaker they were using and was blasting my porn audio to an apartment full of people. I have never been so embarrassed in my life and I laid there for what felt like an eternity afterwards listening to them all die laughing."
– thabender
Viewing History
"Not me, but a friend of mine was living with his dad, and they only had one computer in the house (this was 15+ years ago). My friend was showing his dad how to do something on the computer and they opened up Windows media player. Somehow it started playing the last video watched... which was a lesbian porn video that my friend had been watching."
– DeathSpiral321
The Enlightenment
"I was helping a man download a Bible app onto his phone. I had to go into his browser to search something for him, and it was all porn. About 50 tabs open, each showing what term he'd put into Google, and the search terms were the kind that a 10 year old would use."
"I finished getting him the app and attempted to peace out, although not before having to tactfully decline giving him my phone number."
– LittleBitOdd
These will remind you to double-check who you're sending what to.
Wrong Recipient
"My fiancé was sending me some sexy nudes on Snapchat one day. She had a bit too much to drink by this time. I got all of them, but so so did one of her sisters and a few she accidentally posted to her story. Luckily one of her female friends saw it and told her so she could delete them before anyone else saw them. Her sister snapped her back a thumbs up that said Didn’t want to see that, but hey nice vag! Lol. She was incredibly embarrassed naturally and it took a while before I got saucy pics again."
– Dis4Wurk
The Other Dynamite
"My mother was once trying to show my friend a picture of John Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) she got while at a panel of his. There were my dad's dick pics instead O_o"
– Tokiw4
Monitor Your Photo Album
"I was kind of on the flipside of this when my uncle was going through pictures of my baby cousin on his phone and swiped too far to show me a picture of my auntie standing completely naked in a doorway. The image is still burned into my mind..."
– jamiedunne420
A Swipe Too Far
"A friend was showing us his holliday pictures and accidentally swiped too far and showed us all a selfie of his a**hole then one of his balls when he tried to fix it."
– bfgjuju123
Private Portfolio
"My partner showed his friends some pictures from a vacation years ago and he scrolled too far back and he accidentally showed them my nudes. I was 5ft away and died."
– osmosisaturn
Zune Session
"Had the minister of my church at my house. He wanted to upload music from his laptop onto my Zune (tells you when this was). He turns it on and the Zune immediately displays a topless picture of my fianceé, a girl he's known since birth having been best friends with her parents. He just clears his throat and says, 'I didn't see that.' The rest of my time with him that day was incredibly awkward but he never brought it back up again. edit: To clear up any confusion the picture was on my Zune that I had taken. The pastor knew nothing about it prior to seeing it."
– gil_beard
The Crush Code
"In college I had a crush on a guy whose name was 4 letters. I set it as my phone passcode. When I was home for break, my brother took my phone and started teasing me about liking this guy, then he tried to unlock my phone using his name as the passcode. It worked."
– cunninglinguist32557
Busted
"Older man caught me looking at boobs on my phone during a bus ride home. I quickly scrolled up, realizing that I was in public. He leaned over and said 'hey, we can share.' Got off three stops before my own."
– gyratepirate
Now would be a good time to go through your photos on your phone.
The only guarantee that anyone would not inadvertently see your naughty nudes or screenshotted NSFW pics from the internet would be to either erase them from your devices or back them up to the cloud.
But if you need easy access to your erotic visuals, then whatever ends up happening is all on you.
Who knew trying to be discreet would be such a chore in the 2020s?