While Google adding 1 and 1 together and coming up with 3 is a problem--especially continuing to do so even when they're told they're wrong--it's not the only issue and it's not uniquely a Google problem.
Name collisions of somewhat uncommon but not unique names were a thing long before there was a Web, much less a Google. A friend of mine in NYC shared a name with a local individual who got into a very public spat with the owner of a local sports team. My friend literally got death threats left on his answering machine.
I'm not sure what the answer is. People should probably think more carefully about putting their True Name out there attached to writing and social media presences if they don't otherwise want to have a public presence. But that's pretty useless advice retrospectively and, of course, doesn't help the people confused with someone who does want a public presence.
It's easy to lay this on Google. But if you share a name with a few other people, especially if one of them is notorious in some way, you're going to get conflated with them in searches by any search provider if e.g. a recruiter plugs your name in--so just hope you're not likely to be confused with them.
"I'm not sure what the answer is."
The answer is there needs to be some sort of accountability required, where you can reach a human person who can resolve your issue. Under penalty of significant fines.
For knowledge panels, perhaps yes. Google is presenting them in a way that people unfamiliar with how Google operates might think it has verified the information.
But if you have an unusual name but share $FIRSTNAME $LASTNAME with a couple other people and one of them has been convicted of notable $CRIME, that person will turn up in searches for your name. I mean, that's what search engines do. It's up to the searcher to figure out--if they care enough to--that you are a different person.
But if your name is Jeffrey Epstein and all someone finds when they search on your name is that Jeffrey Epstein, I'm not sure what Google, Microsoft, or DuckDuckGo is supposed to do about that.
I'm not sure what accountability you're looking for in a straight web search. (Again leaving knowledge panels out of it.) You plugged in a name and a search engine returned the most popular/authoritative results for that name.
Yes, I know multiple cases of people getting attacked by angry mobs on social media because their names got unfavorable press attention that week, without any involvement of faulty knowledge panels. Sometimes drive-by attacks continue even after the subject pin a post clarifying that they are the wrong person to bark at. The problem is attacking people online (or maybe leaving death threats over the phone) has essentially zero cost.
The knowledge panel problem is easy to fix (by the right person). The assholes-gonna-asshole problem is hard to fix.
And there are also a ton of cases from an AirBnB host to a potential date to a lazy recruiter where someone decides it's just more trouble than it's worth to confirm that news story isn't actually about Person A.
Name collisions of somewhat uncommon but not unique names were a thing long before there was a Web, much less a Google. A friend of mine in NYC shared a name with a local individual who got into a very public spat with the owner of a local sports team. My friend literally got death threats left on his answering machine.
I'm not sure what the answer is. People should probably think more carefully about putting their True Name out there attached to writing and social media presences if they don't otherwise want to have a public presence. But that's pretty useless advice retrospectively and, of course, doesn't help the people confused with someone who does want a public presence.
It's easy to lay this on Google. But if you share a name with a few other people, especially if one of them is notorious in some way, you're going to get conflated with them in searches by any search provider if e.g. a recruiter plugs your name in--so just hope you're not likely to be confused with them.