We’ve all been there. The text message, sent to the subject instead of the intended recipient. A stray photograph mistakenly included in a photo dump on social media. A “reply all” that clogged up the whole company email list. An embarrassing chat message that ended up in the wrong group.
If you are lucky, you catch it just before hitting send. Then you can have a little laugh about the near-miss, safe in the relief that you managed to avoid an awkward situation.
More often than not, though, you have to come up with a terrible excuse for your mishap – “I meant to send that; it was the other person with the same distinctive first name that I was talking about” – knowing that no one believes you, or try to do a quick delete of the message before anyone sees it.
But it can also backfire. Nothing screams “check your email” louder than a recall message or piques your interest in a group chat than when someone deletes a message.
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If you have been following the events in the US – where top US government officials apparently shared plans for an attack on the Houthis in Yemen on a Signal group chat created by national security adviser Mike Waltz that included a reporter – you can see how this situation can sometimes lead to more serious consequences.
That doesn’t mean I have any sympathy for Waltz and his Signal screw-up. Highly paid, supposedly skilled government officials can’t afford to accidentally tag journalists in on the group chat and try to style it out afterwards.
But we can all learn a couple of things from it. First, some people need to be banned from using emojis. Second, it is always worth double-checking who you are sending things to.
In an increasingly digital world, these mishaps and near-misses are becoming more common. Look at the HSE, for example. Recent reports showed that it had more than 600 data breaches last year. In one case a patient record was uploaded to Facebook by mistake; emails were sent to the wrong person 37 times, and on more than 130 occasions, letters were sent to the wrong address.
I may be responsible for some of those data breach reports. For the past few years, at least three Ciara O’Briens have been merrily handing out my email address to everyone from online shopping sites to their doctors, in the mistaken belief that the email address I’ve had for about 20 years is, in fact, theirs.
At various points they have all used my email to sign up for various services, from receipts for their therapy sessions and massages to their car insurance quotes. The online dating profiles could have got me in trouble; the medical results that were sent to the wrong email address were more personal, as were the payslips that were emailed to me long after I alerted the company that they were sending them to the wrong person.
It serves as a cautionary tale. Just because it’s not a matter of national security, it doesn’t mean it isn’t important
A birth notice for someone in a natural birthing class, who had managed to get through the labour and delivery using only the methods that had been taught in the class (delighted for her, but certainly not meant for me).
I’ve had reservations for hotels and receipts for holiday bookings, which could have resulted in a nice break if I’d been willing to jump on a flight to Bali at the last minute. Less pleasant was an emailed ticket to see Nigel Farage speak at an event in the UK when he was riding the momentum of his Brexit campaign.
What do you do when your email is being freely handed out to all and sundry and you have no control over it? I spend a lot of time closing down accounts and changing passwords. If the emails keep coming, they get tagged as spam.
Occasionally I’ll alert the person that they’ve been given the wrong email and ask them to change it or remove it from their records.
The most recent was a trial for ClassPass (I requested an account deletion), but more personal stuff could land the person in hot water.
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In an era where data breaches are commonplace and can have devastating effects, we are supposed to be better at guarding our personal data.
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In the past few years I’ve built up enough information on at least three Ciara O’Briens – date of birth, address, mother’s maiden name – to make a decent stab at identity theft, if I was so inclined. I’m not, but the next person may have a different outlook.
And all because someone mistakenly put the wrong email address on a form.
At least I’m assuming it is largely a mistake. It is possible that at least some of the emails are deliberately sent my way. While signing up to mailing lists to get a discount will see you throw any old email address in there, most of these transactions are fairly important ones. But at some point, you think the person in question might realise that they aren’t getting a lot of the emails they expect.
It serves as a cautionary tale. Just because it’s not a matter of national security, it doesn’t mean it isn’t important.
And if your name just happens to be Ciara O’Brien, maybe check you have your email address correct. Just in case.
