Emails in git commit logs are not a secret, which I wish more people understood and acknowledged. In general I don't think that expecting your email address to be private is reasonable. If you collaborate with others online, they should be able to get in touch. Stuff like this is an unfortunate consequence, but a manageable problem imo.
A recruiter used the GitHub API to pull my email address out of Git commits
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Re: A recruiter used the GitHub API to pull my email address out of Git commits
#12When you run 'git config --global user.email my@email.net'... where do you think that email goes if not in your git commits? Why do you say "my email is not on the web" if you upload your commits to a public web host?
Re: A recruiter used the GitHub API to pull my email address out of Git commits
#13[deleted]
Re: A recruiter used the GitHub API to pull my email address out of Git commits
#14API? Why bother with that when you can just "git clone ... git log"
Re: A recruiter used the GitHub API to pull my email address out of Git commits
#15API? Why bother with that when you can just "git clone ... git log"
Don't even bother cloning! Just view the commit details in the browser.
Re: A recruiter used the GitHub API to pull my email address out of Git commits
#16If you put your email address out there, people will use it. Maybe github needs to do a better job of conveying what you’re making public when you push a commit, although as a service for programmers it may be reasonable to expect people to understand this already.
There are at least a couple of ways to reduce the annoyance of "people will abuse knowing your email address".
I think most of the "you didn't know email is easily readable in your commits" are responding to "try and hide your email address". This is kinda tough, since you need to know how each program you use works well enough to know what's public or not. (Or you need a way to have disposable email addresses).
I think another is "adjust expectations and response". I think if your starting assumption is that an email address is public, or that your email address will receive garbage, then it's easier to mark it as spam, complain on social media, and get over it.
Re: A recruiter used the GitHub API to pull my email address out of Git commits
#17Why is this a big deal?
Of course recruiters search public information.
Learn to live with it.
If your outrage threshold is this low then you’re going to spent all your life in a state of outrage.
It’s nit even interesting let alone important.
Information in github, far from being surrounded by an invisible force field of integrity protection, is actually prime hunting territory for recruiters and any recruiter who doesn’t mine it probably needs to explain to their boss why they’re doing such a bad job.
The recruiter in question, far from being apologetic should have said “yes of course I got your email from GitHub so what?”
The guy recommends avoiding this recruiter. I recommend you use this recruiter as they clearly display basic competence at the task of recruiting.
Re: A recruiter used the GitHub API to pull my email address out of Git commits
#18If you put your email address out there, people will use it. Maybe github needs to do a better job of conveying what you’re making public when you push a commit, although as a service for programmers it may be reasonable to expect people to understand this already.
I got the impression from the tweet it wasn't about github, it was about the recruiter.
The lengths the recruiter is willing to go through to get an email address doesn't start and stop with github.
Re: A recruiter used the GitHub API to pull my email address out of Git commits
#19Emails in git commit logs are not a secret, which I wish more people understood and acknowledged. In general I don't think that expecting your email address to be private is reasonable. If you collaborate with others online, they should be able to get in touch. Stuff like this is an unfortunate consequence, but a manageable problem imo.
Email addresses in general are not supposed to be a secret. They’re supposed to be for people to send you electronic mail. Remember when there used to be books that contained everyone’s phone number?
If you’re a high profile person or are particularly guarding of your personal communication, I think it’s your responsibility to maintain separate public and private email addresses. You should only be making commits to open source projects with an email address that you intend to be public. It’s literally there so that people can email you about the commit.
Re: A recruiter used the GitHub API to pull my email address out of Git commits
#20One of the things I hate about Git is that it requires an email address. It doesn't let you just leave a blank value, it needs something that resembles an email address.
I get that email is how the kernel-devs do it. But IMO it's inappropriate for the version-control software to link a particular communication mechanism. Sure you can use a fake email address, and many of us do. Finally github has a feature to use their own no-reply email addresses, but it's a kludge.