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Ask HN: How did my old Gmail account get linked to my identity and new name?

24 points by triyambakam ↗ HN
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.

10 comments

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 34.8 ms ] thread
slater
recruiters have a bajillion (technical term) sources of info. might also just be a lucky guess...?
blondin
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.

jozvolskyef
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.
walrus01
recruiters are absolutely ruthless with the use of correlation in any CRM database they can get their hands on.
akomtu
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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Macha
Gravatar? The vendors recruiters use are not above ingesting data leaks, and I've definitely tracked three cases of recruiters (including a FAANG inhouse recruiter) using inappropriate email addresses to one vendor using data from the gravatar leak.
imron
> How is it possible that this address became linked in any way to my identity, let alone my new name?

Wait 'til you see what else they know about you.

thefoyer
ever since I signed up for linkedin I get recruiters emailing me at my previous companies email address. There is no reason they should even have that information.