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Gmail Reveals the Names of All Users
ihatespam writes "Have you ever wanted to know the name of admin@gmail.com? Now you can. Through a bug in Google calendars the names of all registered Gmail accounts are now readily available. All you need to find out the names of any gmail address is a Google calendar account yourself. Depending on your view this ranges from a harmless "feature" to a rather serious privacy violation. According to some reports, spammers are already exploiting this "feature"/bug to send personalized spam messages."
chunkylover53 is going to be most displeased.
IBM doesn't play chess with the Universe.
Really, now everyone will know my name is John Smith? I am outraged and will see my lawyer immediately!
-- john.smith@gmail.com
Someone should get an ass-kicking for this.
Agreed. I'll certainly be asking for my money back...
Then they'll know what part is your first and last name regardless of capitalization! THIS IS HUGE!
It's a good thing they caught this in beta, before it affects a large number of people!
So yeah, this is a pretty big deal -- not so much for spammers, but as a privacy violation. You can't do a name lookup for an arbitrary e-mail address, and you shouldn't be able to do it for a GMail address. Someone should get an ass-kicking for this.
You know what else... Someone left a thick softcover book on my doorstep the other day that listed the names, addresses, and phone numbers of everyone in my region. Hundreds of thousands of people, maybe millions. I called the police about this, but they seemed unconcerned.
Any chance they could just do a dumb filter and exclude women with obviously female names? I'm really tired of getting spam about enlarging my [non-existent] penis, especially the more explicit ones. It would not 'give my partner more pleasure'.
At least change the 'your' to 'his'. That might even get you more sales than sending it to the men.
No, her parents named her Moon Unit. What kind of fucking name would "Quantum G" be?!?!
Wait, the Rolexes are fake?!?!
Where 'firstname' and 'lastname' are my actual names.
Damn! Some nasty name you got there! Perhaps I'll name my son 'firstname' too!
Oh man! So email can be sent to me at the.rapist@gmail.com or therapist@gmail.com?
Yes, and using the exploit referred to in the article, your real names will be revealed as Jekyll and Hyde, respectively.
A World in a Grain of Sand / Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Infinity in the Palm of your Hand / And Eternity in an Hour.