October 15, 2002
Is That Me Out There? ... Let's take five with Moira Gunn. This is "Five Minutes".
Ever heard of Identity Theft? Certainly, it occurs when someone steals your credit card and runs up a big bill. But what about when someone actually impersonates you?
A researcher I know was recently asked by several colleagues why he had written such an unprofessional review of a new book just published by another scientist. Thoroughly confused, my friend logged onto Amazon, and sure enough, there was a sophomoric, borderline-scatological customer review of the book, and it was signed with his full name and the well-known locale from which he has long published his own scientific work.
The only problem was - it wasn't him.
He promptly notified Amazon, who three days later emailed back this message: "Please rest assured that these comments have been removed from our database and will disappear from the web site within the next 3-5 business days."
Needless to say, his rest was anything but assured.
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In academic and research circles, gossip survives for years, especially if it's juicy or embarrassing. It's a form of professional backstabbing and you know it when you hear it. Someone mentions a name, and someone else says, "Isn't that the fellow ..." and then a third person finishes the sentence. If you object, this group can actually turn on you - why would you protect this loser?
Unsubstantiated stories have denied people jobs and career advancement, caused rejection of their research in refereed journals, and resulted in the denial of research grants and coveted prizes which may award large sums of money. To make matters worse, some of these unfortunate victims are never aware that it was even happening.
It was time for me to take a good look at Amazon's policies.
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In a section you click to entitled "The Fine Print," anyone is free to post customer reviews as long as "the content is not illegal, obscene, threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy, infringing of intellectual property rights, or otherwise injurious to third parties or objectionable and does not consist of or contain software viruses, political campaigning, commercial solicitation, chain letters, mass mailings, or any form of 'spam.' You may not use a false e-mail address, impersonate any person or entity, or otherwise mislead."
So how could this identity theft have happened? Well, the answer is in the very next sentence: "Amazon.com reserves the right (but not the obligation) to remove or edit such content, but does not regularly review posted content."
I would assume this also means that Amazon doesn't take the time to make sure that you are who you say you are.
One quick read would have clearly revealed this to be an unsuitable review, and the most cursory checking of identity would have quashed it altogether.
In the mean time, let's understand that we have no way of knowing whether this will be correctly interpreted as a mean-spirited prank, or whether it will have lasting consequences. Being a scientist is extremely competitive. Everyone is after the same finite pool of money, recognitions and awards. Jealousy and envy go easily with the territory. And we all know that it's not just scientists. These are relatively common human emotions.
So, Amazon, you're going to have to do better than this - you really are.
I'm Moira Gunn. This is Five Minutes.
