Think of how many emails you get and what they say. In short, I have become the center of an international network of Other Sara Morrisons who can’t get their email address right. I know their credit card numbers.Įmail is the “skeleton key to your digital life.” Well, I have a skeleton key to a lot of other people’s digital lives, too. I know their property tax payment issues. I’ve been part of a monthslong job hunting process for one Other Sara Morrison and received the renewed occupational license for another … twice.
I know when and where they’re going on vacation, what car they’re renting, and I get tickets to the theme parks they’ll visit when they get there. I know when they give birth and am kept apprised about what their child ate and how often she pooped at daycare. I know when and where their medical appointments are. In premium email provider Hey’s words, email is the “skeleton key to your digital life.” Well, I have a skeleton key to a lot of other people’s digital lives, too.Įmails sent to me that were meant for Other Sara Morrisons have given me a good deal of insight into - and a disturbing amount of access to - the lives of the many people who share my name. All of this from something that doesn’t require you to verify your ID and that most people get to use for free, provided by a giant corporation that wants to harvest our data. Your email can also serve as your account recovery tool when you forget your username or password. Companies use it to create profiles of you when you start accounts with them and it often doubles as your username. Their frequent invasions of my inbox have made me realize how much trust many of us put in a system that wasn’t designed to do some of the things we’ve come to use it for.Įmail isn’t just a communication tool it’s also an identifier and a security measure. Today, Gmail is the most popular email service in the world, which has created a seemingly limitless number of what I collectively refer to as the Other Sara Morrisons: people who share my name and who, for whatever reason, enter my Gmail address when they mean to use their own. A long time ago, I got some prime email real estate: No middle initial, no extra numbers at the end.
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