I recently read Evan Ratliff’s post, My wife found my email in the Ashley Madison database. I sort of understand where he is coming from here. No, my email address is not in the Ashley Madison database dump (as far as I know and I have not checked). My email address is, however, frequently used by other Todd Groomses around the country. I receive Lexus maintenance reminders for a Todd Grooms in Florida. I’ve received daycare notices for a Todd Grooms in Illinois. I usually attempt to respond to the sender to let them know that my email address does not belong to the person he or she is trying to reach, but this always feels so odd and so pushy on my part. Do I have an obligation to contact someone if the email seems to be important? Are they listing my email address knowingly to avoid spam in their own inboxes?
I believe there was just a misunderstanding and an error made when recording the email address for the Todd Grooms in Illinois. However, the Todd Grooms in Florida must knowingly give out the wrong email address as he frequently signs me up for newsletters from Lamborghini and Ferrari dealerships as well as boat dealerships. The Todd Grooms in Florida is kind of a jerk. Not only am I getting signed up for newsletters that I do not want, but I have to have this guys seemingly deep pockets flaunted in my face.
This also brings up the question: do we really own our email address? When I receive misplaced email, it almost feels as though someone out there is impersonating me. I sort of feel as though a small part of my identity has been taken away from me. I realize that my main contact address is a Gmail address and that at anytime it can be taken away from me, but I that email address has become apart of my identity. I’ve had it since 2005-2006 (it’s been so long ago, I don’t honestly remember). It’s a surreal feeling realizing that someone can essentially impersonate me or possibly represent me in a context that I do not want or am not aware of. It’s silly and, ultimately, trivial, but it’s something that I think about.