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."

Comments

Re:This only punishes the foolish

[Helios1182]

Exactly, now they will use my real name while trying to sell me discount prescription drugs and fake Rolexes.

Oh noes!

[Taibhsear]

Now everyone will know my name is Bob Lablaw!
Seriously, anyone that puts in their real name on a remotely accessible non-business account has some neurons not firing properly...

But My Full Name..

[TheNinjaroach]

..is already in the email address.

Re:This only punishes the foolish

[shanen]

I couldn't believe it, so I tested it--and Gmail evidently *DOES* ignore periods in the left side of the email address.

However, I actually don't regard it as a privacy security hole, though it is an interesting feature with lots of implication. For one thing, it prevents people from using similar email addresses by shuffling periods around. It also means that I could register for various websites with multiple variations of my Gmail address...