Friends Exchanged for Email

Take a look at this article in the New York Times about how easy it is to unwittingly give your friends' email addresses away when you “sign up” for a site. As I read the article I realized that the same thing had happened to me recently when I got an form letter email from MyLife.com from one of the dads from my son's soccer team, who I didn’t really think was suddenly interested in social networking. Thankfully I didn’t sign up, but the article details how in exchange for your email many of these sites are given permission in the fine print to scour your address book for emails to send offers to. As always, be careful what you sign up for, the friends you save may be your own.