My gmail address is first.last@gmail.com. From time to time (and for years) I get someone else’s at firstlast@gmail.com. I thought that a Gmail account that was first.last@gmail also allowed for email sent to firstlast@gmail (no period) to reach my inbox as well.

I’ve received some sensitive/PII content over the years.

I’ve wondered if this person has access to any of my information?

Not necessarily related to this post, but wonder why and how this could happen.

No, I think what's happening is someone else is confused what their email address is. With Gmail, dots are not significant; any email address with dots is equivalent to the email address without any dots. (So you may have signed up as first.last@, but your email address under the hood is really firstlast. You can also send mail to your f.i.r.s.t.l.a.s.t@gmail.com, and it will be delivered to you.)

I expect that someone else with the same name as you occasionally (or all the time) forgets that their actual email address is flast@gmail.com or lastfirst@gmail.com or some other similar combo, and enters your email into signup forms. Or has friends who guessed their email address and got it wrong. Or something.

That other person doesn't have access to your information.

No it isn't.. it's firstlast@gmail.com [Dots don't matter in gmail addresses](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150)

> I thought that a Gmail account that was first.last@gmail also allowed for email sent to firstlast@gmail (no period) to reach my inbox as well.

Yes, and you've received email that was addressed like that ... so what's your issue?

> I’ve wondered if this person has access to any of my information?

Yes, because "this person" is you.

Handy tip for software testing - Gmail ignores everything after a “+” in the address. So when you’re testing different accounts in your software you can use <youremail>+1@gmail.com, <youremail>+2@gmail.com, <youremail>+3@gmail.com etc. to create many different accounts in the software that all go to the same email address.

> I’ve wondered if this person has access to any of my information?

No. They have just told someone your email address and that someone has sent you stuff. Anyone can do that, if they dream up your email address. People having the same name are a lot more likely to do that.

Happened to me as well. I was the first one of the 50 people or so carrying my name to register "first[.]last@gmail.com" back in 2004. At least two of my namesakes have since mistakenly used my email address. Some people just aren't very detail-oriented.