who is mad about people getting your email address without asking.

[sunshine45]

yes i am getting tired of people getting my personel information on yahoo,facebook, google, and youtube and the people who are doing it are not even on my friend's list it's not there business does anyone know how to report this or get the networks in trouble if so let me know i am about to close everything out to where no one can get my stuff that's invasion of privacy anyone got any suggestions.

[dw426]

Eh, first thing's first: Do you have your email address listed in your public profiles?

[noone_particular]

Any personal information that you put on the web is for all purposes, public. There's no reason to give Yahoo, Facebook, or any similar site any information that you want kept private. None of them need your real address, phone number, primary e-mail addy, or even a real name. Most if not all of them will share your info with partners, affiliates, and their advertisers. Even if they have a policy that limits who they share that data with, that policy doesn't apply to the other companies. A lot of people, especially when they're just beginning to explore the web, post their real details on profile pages like those from Yahoo, Hotmail, MSN, Facebook, etc, and on sites that want an e-mail address before you can post a comment or response. Going back to all those sites and removing your personal data helps prevent new people from getting it, but doesn't help with those who already have it. Once spammers have your e-mail, it's almost impossible to stop. Most spammers are not using their own PCs to do the spamming, which makes finding and blocking the sources futile. The easiest way is to scrap the e-mail addy and make new ones.

Regarding e-mail, the best way to deal with sites that require a valid e-mail is to use webmail sites and treat the accounts as disposable. Restrict your primary e-mail to real friends, family, and legitimate businesses like your bank or utilities.