---
title: 'I Don''t Trust Gmail. Here''s Why'
date: 2024-04-08
categories:
   - general
tags:
    - technology
---

I have had an email address with Gmail for probably 20 years.  I mean my email address is my name @ Gmail. No numbers, no weird abbreviations, no strange punctuations, just my firstnamelastname @gmail.com How long has it been since that was possible?

Three or four years ago I began receiving emails to my address that were clearly intended for another pers<!-- more -->on with my same name.  Their email was literally my email address!  At first I thought it was just an glitch in the system. Later I thought perhaps they had simply mis-typed their name (maybe left out a letter or something) or had made up a name so that they did not get spam emails.  However, many of those emails were for legitimate purposes -- receipts from Tractor Supply or from their cell phone provider.  What gives?

Now, I know that there are at least a dozen folks out there here in the US and in South Africa and Australia that share my name.  But Gmail should not allow anyone else to create an account with the same user name.  Yet, clearly, when I look at the emails intended for those other Kevins it is very clear that they are using the same email address.  How is that possible?

It occurred to me, then, that if I am receiving their emails, they are likely seeing some of mine.  Not a good plan!  I've tried to figure out how to contact Gmail to see what's going on and how this could be happening but so far I haven't been successful.  And, frankly, with so many other email accounts available to me (outlook, yahoo, icloud, etc) I don't really need the Gmail account anymore.  I keep it simply because I've had it so long and there are still a (very) few folks that only have that address for me.  

Now, I don't use Gmail for anything embarrassing or nefarious but, still, the idea that others may be receiving emails intended for me is, to say the least unsettling. So, since I haven't been able to track down why I am receiving emails intended for others and how it is possible for others to create accounts using my same username (there are at least two!) I don't feel that I can trust Gmail. For that reason I no longer use it for anything other than as an address to use when I don't really want to receive emails to my primary service (I'll talk about that in another post).  That's sad, because Gmail used to be a good service.  But, I guess when you get too big for your britches you lose control of a lot of stuff.