What is a consequence of creating contacts without associated accounts?

Creating contacts without associated accounts results in those contacts being private and accessible only to their owners. In Salesforce, owning a record, such as a contact, imposes sharing settings that make the record limited to the owner's visibility unless explicitly shared with others. Without an associated account, the system treats the contact as standalone, enhancing security by default since it will not inherit visibility from an account, which typically allows broader access.

When contacts are linked to accounts, sharing rules and organizational hierarchical visibility can apply, which may expose them to more users based on the account settings. However, since a contact without an account does not have that context, it remains private, ensuring that only the designated owner can see and edit the contact details. This design helps businesses maintain privacy over individual contacts that may not belong to a broader organizational structure.