[HN Gopher] Ask HN: How did my old Gmail account get linked to m...
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       Ask HN: How did my old Gmail account get linked to my identity and
       new name?
        
       I have a Gmail account from high school that has never used my
       legal name, and even if it had, my full legal name (first and last)
       has since changed. I haven't created any logins with this address
       in many, many years.  Every few years I check to see if there is
       anything important there. Just recently I noticed some recruiter
       messages addressed to my new legal name.  How is it possible that
       this address became linked in any way to my identity, let alone my
       new name?  I really want to reply to the messages with incredulity,
       and now it makes those companies seem scummy to use such
       recruitment practices.
        
       Author : triyambakam
       Score  : 12 points
       Date   : 2022-05-30 19:33 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
       | slater wrote:
       | recruiters have a bajillion (technical term) sources of info.
       | might also just be a lucky guess...?
        
       | blondin wrote:
       | recruiters for sure.
       | 
       | not trying to defend recruiting practices, but sometimes it's not
       | even them. it's the game itself that's messed up. i mean, like
       | having your email address, phone number. or your dob, marital
       | status, every single place you have worked at for the past 5
       | years.
       | 
       | resumes are the worst for privacy.
       | 
       | been ignoring recruiters and scammers since forever. after
       | uploading my resume to a few "trustworthy" websites.
        
       | walrus01 wrote:
       | recruiters are absolutely ruthless with the use of correlation in
       | any CRM database they can get their hands on.
        
       | jozvolskyef wrote:
       | Is it possible that the following tuples exist in some database?
       | (mail1, phone)       (mail2, phone)
       | 
       | If the answer is yes, someone probably resolved your email
       | address based on your telephone number.
        
       | akomtu wrote:
       | I bet they bought your info from data brokers and joined
       | datasets. You probably leaked your phone number with your name at
       | some point: maybe you filled out some form, put there your number
       | and later this form was sold to data brokers. On another occasion
       | you gave away the link between your number and that email: some
       | furniture website asked for those details and you gave that.
       | Another big opportunity for data hoarders is those in-store
       | discounts in exchange for your number, but they also get to see
       | your credit card info, so linking your number to your name is
       | trivial.
        
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       (page generated 2022-05-30 23:02 UTC)