Registering your hardware or software If you send in your e-mail address when you register your hardware or software you have already answered all the demographic questions of what your likes are, where you live and the most obvious one .... what you just purchased. Now you can be a target for more of the same thing. If you are interested in this one then you might want to get a new one when an upgrade comes along. They can also now correlate your real name and address with your e-mail address.