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That might explain a pretty creepy thing Facebook did the other day to me. I just created a new Facebook account after maybe 4 years of radio silence. Two yea
by kminehart 10y ago
That might explain a pretty creepy thing Facebook did the other day to me.
I just created a new Facebook account after maybe 4 years of radio silence. Two years ago, I had a job doing IT contracting; often I would go to businesses and repair laptops or run cable to a COM room. We had very very few residential clients since they weren't worth our time; the few that we did have were really just courtesy for doing business for so long. I went to one residents home a SINGLE time, hardly interacted with the man, and he definitely did not know my last name.
Guess who pops up on my "Suggested friends", with no mutual friends or place of work or any similar "liked" pages? Yeah, that one client.
Similarly, we worked in a small office in a cold storage facility, and Facebook also suggested that I add their accountant as my friend.
It's really creepy, but if Facebook was able to know that I worked at that employer then it's possible that it was able to make the connection.
- O5vYtytb 10y agoThey know your location and proximity to other facebook users.
- soared 10y agoThis is the actual answer. Your phone tried to connect to their wifi and knows they've also connected to that same wifi. With few other quality friend suggestions, these ones popped up.
- rl3 10y agoOr, if one or both parties were running the Facebook app with location services enabled, it could also have been GPS too. I wrote about this a few days ago.[0] Basically, new Facebook accounts that you run on the app with location services enabled will provide creepy location-based friend suggestions by default. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13252568 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13252568
- kminehart 10y agoThis is fairly old but if you're curious I have since gotten a new phone and have not connected to their wifi; it was likely their contacts that were uploaded to Facebook which included my number.
- ams6110 10y agoOr some other more active Facebook user knew both of you. It doesn't take very many hops of the graph to connect people who might not be aware of that connection themselves.
- dublinben 10y agoThe most common source of those suggestions is phone contacts. Anyone using the Facebook (or Instagram) app is sending them a copy of their entire address book to be used for network mapping purposes.
- deadringerr 10y agoInstagram, you say? Go on...
- nommm-nommm 10y agoInstagram is owned by Facebook.
- xg15 10y agoHow about Whatsapp? (especially since it apparently keeps all whatsapp contacts in "unknown" state if you deny the permission on android)
- bagacrap 10y agoI don't know if this is still true given the permissions model on Android (don't know about iOS). I just checked IG and it only has access to storage. Contacts, SMS, microphone, etc are not enabled.
- marcosdumay 10y agoWatsApp can read your contacts.
- xivusr 10y agoNo mention here if this was the mobile app, but the IOS version will try and upload your contacts when you install messenger. If you or one of your contacts uploads their address book then your friendship/connection can be inferred from the emails now in their database. I'd guess your client has messenger installed if you didn't install it.
- likpok 10y agoDid they ever send you an email or a text? One thing I've had happen is that if the other person uploads their contacts/address book, you start seeing them as suggested friends.
- TallGuyShort 10y agoI suspect they do this if that client has your email address (even a previous one using the same first / last name) and gave Facebook access to their address book. LinkedIn did this. Registered, also after years of silence on any kind of social media website other than email: "Would you like to connect with your ex-girlfriend who only emailed you one time at a different address?"
- user5994461 10y agoI can confirm with 100% certainty that the Facebook android app will scan all your contacts. If you got a guy's number (and maybe that guy got yours), he'll be suggested.
- Fiahil 10y agoYup. Same if you visit someone's page, if you're not friends, both of you'll get suggestions. It's annoying when you repetitively missclicked on an homonym. Some people working there are too proud of these features to remove them.
- user5994461 10y agoThe more I stalk someone, the more I'm suggested to stalk someone. That is creepy.
- nommm-nommm 10y agoI never even had a LinkedIn account and I get those emails from LinkedIn.