I’m Worried That I’ll Be Arrested for Someone Else’s Crime: You Should Be Too

Huge government databases, errors mean you could be nabbed when your doppelgänger runs amok

Photo of author taken by author

I started my career as a journalist who covered privacy issues tied to health care policy — rules that prevent doctors from handing out your personal information like candy to kids — but I also reported on FBI wiretapping.

That was before 9/11. But even then, I was impressed about the intensity of the regulatory battles between the government and industry groups that worried about privacy laws they said were costly and contradictory. As a reporter, I also witnessed tech giants’ incessant handwringing over FBI attempts to obtain the keys to cryptography products that enable private communications between honest people — but which are also used by kidnappers, thugs and drug dealers to conceal their illegal activities.

During that time, I remember when a public relations officer — calling me to pitch a story — praised me about an article that she said I written. The problem is that I didn’t write it. When it occurred to us that another Jay Krasnow had done the piece, we both felt a few moments of awkwardness.

It turns out that, including me, there are 27 people named Jay Krasnow in the…