How does facebook know this?

[Big Crouton]

I just saw under 'People You May Know' one of my old bosses.  We don't have any mutual friends on facebook, I've never listed that job under my employment or talked about it online, as far as I know there's no way that facebook should have figured out that I know this person unless it's been scanning my emails.

Seriously, as far as I can tell, the only electronic link between me and this person is a couple emails I sent to him years ago that would still be in my gmail somewhere.  Does facebook have access to my email, or is there some other way they could have found this out that I don't know of?

[Fuzzboy]

Maybe he looked at your profile and looked through some of your photos (if they're public), and facebook assumes you might know each other? No idea if that's how it works, just throwin out possibilities

[Sigz]

Facebook doesn't have access to your email unless you give it access, but I think it is possible to have it fetch friends from your email's address book. Haven't used the feature before, so I have no idea how it works, but maybe you did it when you first set up your profile?

Either way though, Facebook is god damned smart. You might not have mutual friends, but you might have friends who have friends of his, it could have used your hometown or current residence information, education/high school stuff, membership in a facebook group that he's a member of, or any number of other things.

[sonatafanica]

you are on the grid motherfucker


only option is to take the sensible way out and kill the government

rape the "father figure"

[TheVoxyn]

It also suggests friends who live in the same area. It seems to be pretty smart indeed when pinpointing 'friends'.

[JayOctavarium]

Huh

It suggested a guy I went to MIDDLE SCHOOL with... which I have no contact with... The only contact I have had was he was the guy who witnessed my accident I had in April... we exchanged numbers.... but I didn't put his number in my phone...

We have no mutual friends



I feel violated

[Liberation]

I find this very suspicious to say the least. This is the main reason why I won't ever create a facebook account. I'd rather have a bug installed in my room.

[slycordinator]

There's nothing suspicious.

As alluded to earlier, it gives you suggestions from people who view your profile in addition to the whole "friend of a friend" part.

[Liberation]

You seriously see nothing wrong with a system knowing basically everything about you? Not only the data you enter yourself but also everything it can get out of them?

[Sigz]

You seriously see nothing wrong with a system knowing basically everything about you? Not only the data you enter yourself but also everything it can get out of them?

It doesn't 'know everything about you', or anywhere near that. It has no idea this guy is the OP's former boss, it just (most likely) saw that he viewed his profile and suggested that he might know him, assuming the OP himself didn't hook his email into it. I get 'people I might know' suggestions all the time for people I've never met in my life.

[Dimitrius]

Facebook is Skynet?

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

It once recommended me one of my Diablo II buddies. I had no affiliation with him apart from Diablo II.

[Sigz]

It once recommended me one of my Diablo II buddies. I had no affiliation with him apart from Diablo II.

Battle.Net has facebook functionality.

[Nekov]

I don't know why this surprises anyone. Facebook has been violating are privacy since day one.

Facebook is Skynet?

I tend to believe Google is Skynet, but FB comes close.

[Liberation]

You seriously see nothing wrong with a system knowing basically everything about you? Not only the data you enter yourself but also everything it can get out of them?

It doesn't 'know everything about you', or anywhere near that. It has no idea this guy is the OP's former boss, it just (most likely) saw that he viewed his profile and suggested that he might know him, assuming the OP himself didn't hook his email into it. I get 'people I might know' suggestions all the time for people I've never met in my life.

Still, it's dangerously clever in analyzing the data don't you think? If it reaches the point that it knows that you know (or at least met) someone IRL and you've no idea how it got that information, something is wrong.

[Sigz]

You seriously see nothing wrong with a system knowing basically everything about you? Not only the data you enter yourself but also everything it can get out of them?

It doesn't 'know everything about you', or anywhere near that. It has no idea this guy is the OP's former boss, it just (most likely) saw that he viewed his profile and suggested that he might know him, assuming the OP himself didn't hook his email into it. I get 'people I might know' suggestions all the time for people I've never met in my life.

Still, it's dangerously clever in analyzing the data don't you think? If it reaches the point that it knows that you know (or at least met) someone IRL and you've no idea how it got that information, something is wrong.

That's my point. It doesn't know anything. It just looks at all the information it has, and makes guesses. Sometimes it's right, and a lot of times it's completely wrong. Of course, no one thinks twice the dozens of times it's wrong, but when it is right suddenly everyone freaks out.

[Jamesman42]

You seriously see nothing wrong with a system knowing basically everything about you? Not only the data you enter yourself but also everything it can get out of them?

It doesn't 'know everything about you', or anywhere near that. It has no idea this guy is the OP's former boss, it just (most likely) saw that he viewed his profile and suggested that he might know him, assuming the OP himself didn't hook his email into it. I get 'people I might know' suggestions all the time for people I've never met in my life.

Still, it's dangerously clever in analyzing the data don't you think? If it reaches the point that it knows that you know (or at least met) someone IRL and you've no idea how it got that information, something is wrong.

Sure, it's very clever. Dangerous depends on what you think, though. Why exactly is it dangerous?

And what makes it wrong if it is very good at networking? A ton of websites/programs these days are connected with various links (a lot have facebook like/comment boxes, or the ability to log in with facebook apps), so it shouldn't be too surprising.

Also, I agree with Sigz, it can be completely wrong sometimes, because it really is using the data it knows. It doesn't know anything beyond what YOU feed it with your online activity.

[Liberation]

That's my point. It doesn't know anything. It just looks at all the information it has, and makes guesses. Sometimes it's right, and a lot of times it's completely wrong. Of course, no one thinks twice the dozens of times it's wrong, but when it is right suddenly everyone freaks out.

Still if it's stuff like

We don't have any mutual friends on facebook, I've never listed that job under my employment or talked about it online, as far as I know there's no way that facebook should have figured out that I know this person unless it's been scanning my emails.

That's... weird don't you think? Even if it's wrong most of the time, this shows how much stuff it can analyze; for me that's far too much for comfort.

And I wouldn't say "everyone freaks out" since I feel that not having facebook puts me in the "dinosaur" category, and I don't know many people who don't have one. People are apparently perfectly comfortable (or not aware) with it.

Sure, it's very clever. Dangerous depends on what you think, though. Why exactly is it dangerous?

And what makes it wrong if it is very good at networking? A ton of websites/programs these days are connected with various links (a lot have facebook like/comment boxes, or the ability to log in with facebook apps), so it shouldn't be too surprising.

Also, I agree with Sigz, it can be completely wrong sometimes, because it really is using the data it knows. It doesn't know anything beyond what YOU feed it with your online activity.

Dangerous is maybe an overstatement (though still... how do you know what's the possible use of facebook database? I know I sound like a conspiracy theorist but I think it should be taken into consideration), but it definitely would make me feel uncomfortable.

For me the idea is simple: it should have as much data as I enter myself. That's the line, shouldn't be crossed. If it can do some pretty advanced analysis and dig deep into my privacy, that's most definitely not OK.

[Jamesman42]

But again, why is it not ok? Facebook tells you it pulls data from various sources (I think, anyway, it at least does it with apps). Again, it can't do anything but get your data from YOUR online activity.

And if, at the very most, it suggests friends to you that you think FB shouldn't know the connection of, is it that bad?

[slycordinator]

This isn't "advanced analysis" at all.

Adding a guy to my list of possible friends because he viewed my profile isn't analysis at all in my book. The only thing that could possibly be seen as getting into privacy is getting suggestions based on people who are friends of your friends. And in that case, you can just have it so your friend list isn't available... You can have as much or as little availability of this info as you want.

[TheMadgician]

I'm pretty sure email address books and such play a big difference. I made a joke/ult using an older email. It's the email I had used back when I was with one of my older girlfriends. Get on that account and it's automatically suggesting her. I don't email a whole lot, so no real address book. But there was ingoing and outgoing. So I'd guess that.

[Liberation]

But again, why is it not ok? Facebook tells you it pulls data from various sources (I think, anyway, it at least does it with apps). Again, it can't do anything but get your data from YOUR online activity.

And if, at the very most, it suggests friends to you that you think FB shouldn't know the connection of, is it that bad?

The main issue I have is: if it can do this, and it tells you it can, what else it can do that you do not know about?

[blackngold29]

As has been said, it goes by people in your location or things in common. It throws out plenty of people that I've never heard of or seen (this girl in Japan likes Dream Theater! Do you know her?).

It only knows what you tell it. And it is accurate because it's got good algorithms, it didn't become what it has by sucking.

[ClairvoyantCat]

But again, why is it not ok? Facebook tells you it pulls data from various sources (I think, anyway, it at least does it with apps). Again, it can't do anything but get your data from YOUR online activity.

And if, at the very most, it suggests friends to you that you think FB shouldn't know the connection of, is it that bad?

The main issue I have is: if it can do this, and it tells you it can, what else it can do that you do not know about?

I really can't imagine any sort of personal information that I'd have major qualms over sharing with a non-human, algorithmic system. 

[blackngold29]

I really can't imagine any sort of personal information that I'd have major qualms over sharing with a non-human, algorithmic system.

Exactly, it's not like people are sitting there reading your stuff. And even if they were, I still probably wouldn't care.

People get so bent out of shape about stuff that really I don't see why. Like the Spotify thing, 'Ohhh people will see what I'm listening to!' So what? I've got the last 10,000 songs I've listened to on last.fm, anyone in the world can go on and see them. What privacy have I lost?

[Sigz]

This just came up for me:



HOLY SHIT HOW DOES FACEBOOK KNOW THAT I KNOW SOME JAPANESE GIRL WHOSE NAME I DON'T KNOW BECAUSE ITS IN JAPANESE, A LANGUAGE THAT I CANT SPEAK OR READ THIS IS DANGEROUS SHIT MAN


Oh wait.

[Liberation]

I'm sorry I dared say something against facebook or something anti-mainstream in general. I deserve to be mocked now.

 

[Jamesman42]

It's a messageboard, people are gonna do it.

People mock me for being straight. It happens.

[ytserush]

I don't even HAVE Facebook (Never even signed up) yet I got a few emails last year saying I might know these people and I DID.

I thought it was kinda creepy myself, especially since there were people in different circles of friends and probably not even familiar with each other.

Fortunately this hasn't happened recently.

[BlobVanDam]

I get a lot of random friend suggestions from Facebook. Most of them are either random people, or friends of friends. I've never had it guess anything it shouldn't have known from information freely available. It knows what you give it, and what other people give it.
Maybe it's suggesting some random guy who you've emailed, but Facebook shouldn't know. But maybe the other guy let FB check his email address book. Could be any number of ways it's guessing. I don't really know.

I only give FB info I want it to have, and I've never had any issues.

[Pols Voice]

I'm with ya, Liberation. For a variety of reasons, I'll never make a Facebook account.

[blackngold29]

I'm sorry I dared say something against facebook or something anti-mainstream in general. I deserve to be mocked now.

 

It's not anti-mainstream at all; I've seen plenty of people wonder similar things. I just can never figure out why it's such a big deal. Twenty years from now stuff like this will be laughable.

[slycordinator]

I'm sorry I dared say something against facebook or something anti-mainstream in general. I deserve to be mocked now.

 

Right. People who are fans of a Progressive-Metal band, clearly always respond negatively to stuff that's not mainstream and ridicule anyone who doesn't.

Seriously, the responses you got had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you were against facebook in particular or something mainstream in general.

[MetalManiac666]

I'm sorry I dared say something against facebook or something anti-mainstream in general. I deserve to be mocked now.

 

darkes7 is that you

[jingle.boy]

Along the same lines, I got a 'people you may know' suggestion from LinkedIn last week that was my wife's ex boyfriend from 20 odd years ago (they still keep in touch over FB though).  He lives on the other side of the country, we have no communication directly, he's in a totally different line of work (he's a restaurant manager; I work in hi-tech), we have no common connections on LinkedIn (nothing even close), and he wouldn't know my work email address that LinkedIn is connected to.

Bottom line, I have to believe that most social media sites (FB, Twitter, LI etc...) share information.