Can my contacts get my IP address, and if so what can they do with it?
An IP address is not something hard to obtain, and will not give away any information about you personally. In fact the majority of users have dynamic IP's that change from day to day, rendering posession of this info even more useless.
If you are paranoid about revealing your IP, remember that using a webcam, messaging directly with a buddy, IMVironments and file transfers all may connect directly with your contact leaving your IP open for discovery. If you are still worried about attacks, make sure you have a router or firewall in place on your home network and keep an updated antivirus application running as well. You can now rest easy.
