I’ve received two e-mails in the last two weeks from people I haven’t been in touch with for ages. They’re using a service called Bebo to try to keep in touch.

The e-mails had the same content. Here’s what they said.

Hi

I am updating my address book and it would be very helpful if you could click on the
link below and enter your contact details for me:

(Link to Bebo)

I am using a service that keeps contact details current, just update your own
contact details and then the changes appear in selected friends’ address books. When I
update my contact details you will see them in your address book.

Thank you for helping.

(Name)

After hearing about the service, I can see that it fills a void in how we stay in contact with friends and relatives. How many people have you lost track of because they moved or changed e-mail addresses?

I’ve changed my cell phone number several times and later found out that people tried to get in touch with on the old number and when it didn’t work, they gave up. The service also brings up some privacy concerns because if anyone had access to it, spammers would rejoice. There must be some sort of authentication or validation.

If everyone used a central repository such as this for contact information (address, phone number, e-mail address etc) then you would never lose track of people, which is a good thing in most cases. If you have a stalker, that could be a bad thing.

Note: If you think you may have spyware on your machine, from Bebo or something else, click here.