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> A sex worker found Facebook recommending her clients, who did not know her true identity. A sperm donor got a suggestion for the biological child he never met
by RcouF1uZ4gsC 7y ago
> A sex worker found Facebook recommending her clients, who did not know her true identity. A sperm donor got a suggestion for the biological child he never met. A psychiatrist learned that Facebook was recommending that some of her patients friend each other on the service.
It is amazing how little pieces of information that are likely innocuous by themselves can be combined to develop a pretty thorough understanding of relationships.
- toohotatopic 7y agoBut we don't know if these are false positives. The connection between all those examples doesn't have to be the suggested link. E.g. the patients could be suggested because they have a common friend.
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 7y agoYeah, the psychiatrist seems the easiest to explain since when choosing a medical professional people may ask their friends who they recommend.
- Seenso 7y ago> Yeah, the psychiatrist seems the easiest to explain since when choosing a medical professional people may ask their friends who they recommend. IIRC, connections like those were often explainable by addressbook data. Please assumed Facebook didn't have access to that when it actually did (I'm pretty careful about this kind of stuff and found mine had been slurped at some point, for instance). It's not inconceivable that a psychiatrist and patient may have exchanged emails or phone numbers.
- wpietri 7y agoSince the system is both aggressive and intentionally opaque, it doesn't much matter to me whether the positives are false or true. If Facebook would like people not to feel threatened by it, then they could either not do it or make it much clearer what's going on.
- hbosch 7y agoThe first and last must just be geolocation based, right? Like, these two people are in a room together every X day for Y hours... they probably know each other. The sperm donor guy, though... facial recognition? No idea.
- axlee 7y agoMore likely adress book / phone contacts import.
- titzer 7y agoThe geo thing is really happening.
- Slartie 7y agoI also have the theory that they are using WiFi names / AP MAC addresses as well. If you happen to be connected to the same private WiFi network, you probably know each other.
- jodrellblank 7y agoFacebook has a patent for using dust and scratches on photos to track which camera they came from. But they claime(d) not to be using WiFi or Geolocation for the PYMK feature - https://gizmodo.com/facebook-knows-how-to-track-you-using-the-dust-on-your-1821030620 https://gizmodo.com/facebook-knows-how-to-track-you-using-th...
- Slartie 7y agoBased on the track record of other Facebook claims of the "we don't do X" type, this is basically proof that they do and/or did do both of these things. Maybe "accidentially" and "unintentionally" ;-)
- itronitron 7y agoso a stalker will get recommended to a 'stalkee' ?
- SilasX 7y agoRelatedly, Venmo has given me the identify of people I've contacted before by phone.
- rhizome 7y agoI see those as BIG pieces of information! The number of people that I "might know" because we've exchanged email with the same person is horrifying in this context. There's a dystopic story to be written (which often means it already has been) about law enforcement using this second-order conntection as Reasonable Suspicion, a "why did we find your business card in this bad guy's wallet?" connection.
- azernik 7y agoThis is not a dystopian fantasy; it's exactly how intelligence agencies map out terrorist groups' and foreign militaries' structures online. Israel is supposedly particularly good at this kind of analysis, but I'm sure other countries are doing it.
- lonelappde 7y agoAnd all the "males of fighting age"
- azernik 7y agoWe can get heuristics with lower false positives these days.
- rhizome 7y agoYou have to wonder what kinds of non-employee access are a part of the Facebook web application. That is, perhaps Israel's edge is that they have an (made-up) Investigator version of FB when they log in. I figure everything down the left aside on FB corresponds to a permissions bit for each entry, so maybe some classes of user get some really fun items over there.
- globuous 7y agoI mean, they're creepingly good sometimes. I once met a lady in the streets, we exchanged numbers and sent a few messages but never saw each other again. Facebook recommended her to me. I used whatsapp to text her, so I assume Facebook crossed some data and suggested her to me.