One day at lunch, a Googler told us that he was recently contacted by his first crush from elementary school.
Apparently, what happened was that years ago, in college, he agreed to participate in a psychology experiment run by the psych department. He was asked to fill out a list of questions. He did so, including one question that said, "What is the name of your first crush?"
Later, unbeknownst to him, the psych department posted up the results from this experiment on a web page, including his name and the name of his crush.
Years later, she did a vanity search on her own name, and this psych experiment result came up as a google result. So she emailed him. She's now married with kids, and he has a longtime girlfriend, but they had a lovely time catching up.
I thought this story was very entertaining. So I am going to confess now that I had my first crush when I was six years old in Salt Lake City, and the boy's name was Nathan Fujiki.
I hope this does not come back to embarrass me later!
It sounds like an IRB fail. Data that can be used to identify a subject directly (like one's name) should NEVER be publicly accessible. If I were your friend, I would be incensed at these researchers for knowningly violating both my privacy and federal regulations.
ReplyDeleteWow, you're already the fourth-highest hit for his name:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Nathan+Fujiki&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
Wow, in only two hours. Awesome. I hope I have an email from him by morning, ha ha.
ReplyDeleteIf you ever get married to him this has to be made into a movie.
ReplyDeleteThe email from Nathan will start..."Hi, My name is now Nathalie..."
ReplyDeletere: Anonymous. Haha, that would be awesome!
ReplyDeleteMaybe Nathan will confess that he had a crush on you!
ReplyDeleteI would have thought your first crush was the boy from http://niniane.blogspot.com/2008/05/gratitude-experiment-part-1.html
ReplyDeleteHaha, good memory! I did not have a crush on that boy, although I was very grateful to him. Also, I think I was older in that story.
ReplyDeleteYou know, the Gratitude Experiment Pt I is such an endearing recollection.
ReplyDeletehow funny...i dated him for a few months here in NYC. I know because he is prob the only half white, half japanese guy from salt lake city utah!
ReplyDelete