A few days ago a friend sent me an invite to sign up for Bebo, a social network. Not something I would have done on my own – who needs yet another social network? I did anyway, mostly because it was the first-ever invite I’d received from this friend, and so I indulged his choice.

What a mistake.

I dutifully created my account, filled out my profile, then clicked on Find Friends. Harmless, right? Check out the screenshot below.

As you can see, there is no indication that giving Bebo your email address and password will result in an invitation being sent to everyone you’ve emailed, ever. They slammed my contact list hard.

So my warning is this: avoid Bebo. Save your valuable attention for social networks that respect your personal network (and reputation), like LinkedIn.

NOTE: To be fair, my rudely being exploited did have one benefit: I did get a few emails from old friends with whom I’d lost touch. Whether that is worth the cost of giving a company my entire contact list for free… is hard to figure.