Practically a year earlier, I composed a story about MacKenzie Bezos. The author had recently separated Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and announced she planned to give away the majority of her fortune, approximated at the time to be worth more than $36 billion. I argued that while it was an admirable proceed MacKenzie’s part, depending on the generosity of the abundant wouldn’t fix society’s issues.
Around that time is when the messages started to get here: In numerous emails, calls, and texts, people showered me with flattering platitudes and marriage proposals, shared start-up ideas, and told rambling individual stories. Most of the time, however, they requested for money. I didn’t comprehend what was taking place, a minimum of not at first. As a press reporter, I do not normally field emails asking for, as one self-described 30- year-old in Korea did, that I purchase them a Porsche.
I gradually understood that I wasn’t being spammed, at least not in the conventional sense. Instead, I was being misinterpreted for MacKenzie Bezos herself. How did numerous individuals wind up reaching a random female in Brooklyn instead of a powerful billionaire? The answer turned out to be the outcome of a lot more powerful tech company: Google.
When WIRED published that story about MacKenzie, embedded in the article page was my email address and a telephone number. It was meant for readers to share feedback or send out pointers– a common practice among journalists and authors. Given that MacKenzie’s name remained in the post, Google started pulling the paragraph with my information as though it was hers. If you looked for “MacKenzie Bezos contact number,” “MacKenzie Bezos contact,” or something comparable on Google, my e-mail address and contact number were most likely to appear at the top of the outcomes, prominently shown in a standalone box the company calls a “featured snippet.”
Not everyone who contacted me fully believed I was MacKenzie–” Sure this is a rip-off e-mail,” someone wrote in a message earlier this month– but adequate individuals appeared to. I’ve received numerous messages since last May, some explaining heartbreaking situations, others nearly indecipherable. Nowadays, they’ve taken a semi-apocalyptic turn as an outcome of the pandemic. A person from the UK recently asked for funds to build an underground bunker for their family and friends. “I should tell you more about myself. I do not make a habit of asking individuals for ₤ 2 million, but this virus has actually taught me that I require to be prepared for the big one,” they composed.
I connected to Google’s press email three times to attempt to get my problem fixed, beginning in November of in 2015. In February, feeling desperate, I asked if there was anything WIRED could do to make it stop. “When once again I’m experiencing this problem with Mackenzie Bezos, I have actually gotten most likely 100 e-mails in the last few weeks from Google users who think I am her or deal with her,” I w