As it happens, the company uses a tool called Intercom, which allows any website operator to find out about its customers by their email address, Facebook ID, or whatever they use to sign in. There are many such “customer relationship” services, which rely on data sources that match usernames and email addresses using unspecified means.
碰巧，该公司使用了一个叫“Intercom”的工具，可以让任何网络操作者通过邮箱地址，脸书用户名或者其他任何登陆名来查询其用户。许多这类“消费者关系维护”服务都依赖于用未明确说明的方式核对用户名和邮箱的数据源。大多数人可能没有意识到这些操作——虽然此刻大多数人也不会对此表示震惊（比如我在知道美国国家安全局收集的数据竟然如此私密时也只是略显惊讶）。