The Internet is ever growing.
More people online means more people to meet.
Wherever you click to, you'll find a discussion board, a forum, and a poll to voice your opinion, something to join and be a part of. All this leads to interaction with others online. You can protect yourself by using free web based email service addresses for any program, club, dating service, newsletter, discussion list, forum or anything else that requires an email address from you. Of course, the beginnings of protecting yourself starts with signing up for an anonymous email service using your ISP given email address to begin with. Look for a service that provides forwarding of email messages to your ISP email address.