While stories dealing with the Sony Hack of November 2014 focused mainly on the release cancellation of The Interview, the movie wasn’t the only important Hollywood entity to be affected. In fact, Emma Stone’s private details including her mobile number and email address were also included in the leak which found its way onto the WikiLeaks website.
Once on public display, it was inevitable that people would seize upon these contact details and make use of them. The move was so shocking that Ms Stone did what most of us would never even dream of. In a Wall Street Journal interview she states, “I was so overwhelmed that I went to my inbox and I deleted all my emails.” In a span of less than half a minute, she clicked Select All and pressed the Delete button, sending six years’ worth of emails into oblivion.
So how much spam did she end up receiving to warrant such a reaction? While it is natural to think of hundreds or thousands of unwanted messages, the reality was a lot less extreme. In fact, Ms Stone said that she received “probably five emails and five texts.” So, why this particular reaction? After all, we’ve all received spam in the past and would probably feel awful after losing a piece of our history like that. Basically, the star was “freaked out that someone was in there.”
While we might think this reaction was a little unwarranted, the truth is that we all may be susceptible to a similar fate in the future. The wrong spam message, a sudden influx of unwanted emails or something similar could see anyone just erase their inbox from existence. Thus, it’s better to sympathise with Emma Stone especially since it could be you or me that spam drives right to the edge of desperation in the future.