Here's my opinion about the Cover story "Social Networks".
It might sound lame, here's my idea.
Since you can create any number of email accounts freely these days, one should have at least 2 accounts. One used primarily for serious emailing and MSN; while another for registration on websites (which in other words acts as your substitute). For example, I use gmail as a secondary address to register Facebook and other forum websites, so, the majority junk mails and scams (in case there's any) will actually be directed to your dump address instead of the one you sign in to Messenger.
So, these websites won't be able to dig any important details about you like your Username and Password or your Live Messenger getting hacked for no reason. Occasionally sign in to that email address to skim for important mails and then delete the rest of the notifications.
