3 ms·

I think that companies' failure to verify their users' email addresses during signup is a serious problem that goes beyond any dot confusion. When John Smith s

I think that companies' failure to verify their users' email addresses during signup is a serious problem that goes beyond any dot confusion. When John Smith signs up for an account using JohnSmith@gmail.com (or John.Smith@gmail.com), and the company trusts John Smith to have provided the email address accurately, three parties are affected: Both John Smiths and the company itself. Yes, verifying email address creates a bit more signup friction, but the consequences of getting it wrong way outweigh that friction for the privacy risk and confusion it causes (unless all the company cares about is a meaningless sign-up metric).

aimor 6y ago
Amazon has been sending me someone else's order details for about a year now. It's crazy to me for multiple reasons: 1. They send this information (order details, name, address, tracking numbers, receipt) without requiring a confirmation email. In fact, in their system the email on the other guy's account is labeled "unverified". 2. The emails contain no way to stop future emails. There's no "unsubscribe", "this is not me", "contact us", etc. Every link is to an Amazon page which expects the user to be logged in to the correct account. 3. The system does not sufficiently lock old accounts when the account email is reused. One suggestion from Amazon was to create a new account using my email, which should lock the other account. This did not happen, so now there are two accounts able to send Amazon emails to me with no way to tell them apart. 4. The Amazon website doesn't verify the user's account before displaying order details. If I click on a link from the other person's order return (or other types of links), Amazon opens up to my account but displays information from their order. It's confusing to see someone else's "refund status" alongside my account name on the official Amazon.com site. 5. Getting this fixed is a pain in the ass. I call, they say they'll fix it. I call, they suggest something else. I call, they escalate, try something else again. I chat, can't be handled over chat, they call me, try another thing. I'm not sure why they won't remove the email from his account or contact him and ask him to remove it.
hnick 6y ago
Some of them also only allow you to unsubscribe or contact support through logging in to your account. Which I could easily do through a password reset but that's illegal so I'm not going to bother. I'm still getting credit card statements from an Indian bank. I can confirm the PDF password is easily cracked :)

aimor 6y ago

Amazon has been sending me someone else's order details for about a year now. It's crazy to me for multiple reasons: 1. They send this information (order details, name, address, tracking numbers, receipt) without requiring a confirmation email. In fact, in their system the email on the other guy's account is labeled "unverified". 2. The emails contain no way to stop future emails. There's no "unsubscribe", "this is not me", "contact us", etc. Every link is to an Amazon page which expects the user to be logged in to the correct account. 3. The system does not sufficiently lock old accounts when the account email is reused. One suggestion from Amazon was to create a new account using my email, which should lock the other account. This did not happen, so now there are two accounts able to send Amazon emails to me with no way to tell them apart. 4. The Amazon website doesn't verify the user's account before displaying order details. If I click on a link from the other person's order return (or other types of links), Amazon opens up to my account but displays information from their order. It's confusing to see someone else's "refund status" alongside my account name on the official Amazon.com site. 5. Getting this fixed is a pain in the ass. I call, they say they'll fix it. I call, they suggest something else. I call, they escalate, try something else again. I chat, can't be handled over chat, they call me, try another thing. I'm not sure why they won't remove the email from his account or contact him and ask him to remove it.

hnick 6y ago

Some of them also only allow you to unsubscribe or contact support through logging in to your account. Which I could easily do through a password reset but that's illegal so I'm not going to bother. I'm still getting credit card statements from an Indian bank. I can confirm the PDF password is easily cracked :)