Lately, I've received some emails about a service some folks are using to collect addresses and other personal info. The service is called Ringo. And the discussion has come up on a list I'm on about whether one should use tthat services. While on one hand, I can see the convenience. On the other, I can see how it could possibly be hacked or otherwise compromised, giving someone a listing of peoples addresses and phone numbers.
So the question is, are the risks low enough to make using Ringo or something like it worthwhile or is it best to avoid them? I know personally, I'd hesitate to use such a service and I'd rather just ask people individually for their updated info. But maybe I'm already in that territory by just using online email services such as Yahoo?
Added Note: Looking up Ringo I see you can even link your weblog or specific entries to your Ringo profile. Hmmm....I 'm really not sure what to think of this service given I've never used it. I can really see a few plusses, but I also can see how it could be abused. But then I guess that could be true of a lot of things that I use routinely.