Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Saved Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Flip

1 2

Geeky stuff

Proof, I tell you - proof that Facebook friend suggestions come from people who have stalked your profile

44 replies

bodenbiscuit · 24/06/2015 17:57

I've just looked at my suggested friends. And on there is a man who I met on a dating site about a year ago. He does not have my email address and I do not have his. He MUST have searched me by name. My mobile number is different too.

OP posts:

Report

SwedishEdith · 24/06/2015 18:02

How do you know he's not dated/emailed/phoned anyone else on your friends list?

Report

bodenbiscuit · 24/06/2015 18:22

Well it's unlikely because all my female fb friends are married...

OP posts:

Report

bodenbiscuit · 24/06/2015 18:23

He also does not live in my town and used to message me obsessively.

I don't know if it's correct but was wondering if anyone else has had the same thoughts?

OP posts:

Report

GoofyIsACow · 24/06/2015 18:23

I had someone from the dog rescue (the other side of the country) appear on mine, she had every reason to search for me, we had no mutual friends or anything.

Report

GoofyIsACow · 24/06/2015 18:23

I mean... You are absolutely right!

Report

KillmeNow · 24/06/2015 18:29

Is that right ?

Wow . And I mean WOW - because,on my Facebook, in there with all the friends of friends is ...... Ronan Keating !

It can only be due to my fine style ,good looks and great personality and nothing to do with some random generator .

Report

scribblescrabble · 24/06/2015 18:31

Have you face stalked him?

Report

bodenbiscuit · 24/06/2015 18:33

Scribble - no never.

OP posts:

Report

Wotsitsareafterme · 24/06/2015 18:37

A guy I dated briefly popped up on my suggestions. He must have searched me because I deactivated my account for 2 years and I saw him in the middle of that time and we know no one in common. It made me feel a bit weird

Report

karbonfootprint · 24/06/2015 18:40

I visit peoples pages in the hope I will pop up in their friends suggestions. I thought that was how it worked?

Report

avocadotoast · 24/06/2015 18:58

I think you're right. My team leader from work appeared on mine lately. No mutual friends, and I do have her mobile number saved in my phone but I've never done the "search by contacts" thing.

Report

thehumanjam · 24/06/2015 19:05

I don't think so. Some of the people on my might know list are complete strangers, they wouldn't be stalking my profile. I think it's connected to the cookies on your phone. I may have searched for someone on Google and they then sometimes appear on friends you might know on Facebook.

Report

Indantherene · 24/06/2015 19:28

Somebody from my work kept popping up on friends suggestions. No mutual friends. I have never looked her up.

I went to an event she was running. She said I kept popping up on her suggested friends. We went through everything we could possibly have in common (places we liked etc) and there was nothing (work I've only got generic). She swears she didn't stalk me.

Report

TopCivilServant · 24/06/2015 19:32

Oh god, no!!!! Ugh. I'm a massive Facebook stalker of all sorts of random people. They'll totally know . Cock.

Report

BonnieNoClyde · 24/06/2015 19:35

I do not doubt you.

I know that when some i sent letters to (won't elaborate, details not the point) but sometimes, a while later, names of the people i've sent letters to pop up. We're not friends. We've no friends in common. I haven't emailed them. I haven't rung them on my mobile. I said as much on here once and I was told, no, you're wrong, fb knows that you know each other, it's fb's algorithim workig. NOPE.

i'm a bit though because of the people I've stalked!

Report

Coconutty · 24/06/2015 19:36

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BonnieNoClyde · 24/06/2015 19:39

coconutty I don't think people believe it unless it's happened to them.
I started a thread like this a while ago and a lot of people think that you've overlooked something and that it's facebook's algorhythm. This is what I was told by numerous people the last time I in a panic started a thread similar to this one.

Report

bodenbiscuit · 24/06/2015 19:45

Well facebook never admit what the truth is but is does seem rather coincidental.

OP posts:

Report

eddielizzard · 24/06/2015 19:49

it's definitely true. now i don't stalk people. so boring.

Report

Kangaroo1 · 24/06/2015 19:50

Oh no, I hope this isn't true

Report

Hassled · 24/06/2015 20:00

I'm absolutely sure it's true. I had an ex-colleague pop up as a suggested friend - no mutual friends, no linked workplace, I don't know her email address or phone number (and vice versa), no nothing. The only thing that's left is that she has to have looked at my profile at some stage.

Report

GoofyIsACow · 24/06/2015 21:43

The lady from the rescue was a volunteer who lived an hour away from me coming to do a home check, so only loosely related to the rescue. I had no contact details saved in my phone for her at the time, all i knew was her name and i had her number written down on a piece of paper.
She came up in my list. I knew it was her because her profile pic was a woman with a greyhound, it was a grey specific rescue.

I have no doubt it happens, with this example there was absolutely no other way of her appearing other than her searching for me.
I understand why she searched and i wasn't bothered, it was a bit like a job interview.

Report

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Email address

You've subscribed!

moggle · 24/06/2015 21:51

Omg I have been wondering that!! I had a woman pop up in mine who was a mum of a brownie at the pack I used to help with, I stopped in 2009. We have absolutely no mutual friends and no connection whatsoever. I could not figure out how on earth she appeared in my friends suggestions. I just had a nosey round her profile and then left it at that. It does make sense that she might have searched for me, I suppose. She was a nice person- I think I might have searched for her on FB in the past (just interested in how the family was doing) with no luck, as it turns out she changed her surname. Plus I have a very uncommon name so fairly easy to look for.
Thanks this has been bugging me for ages!!

Report

CookiecutterShark · 24/06/2015 21:55

All my suggested friends are friends of friends. I must be so boring no one's bothered looking me up!!

Interestingly I do have my work listed on my profile, but have no colleagues in my friends list - in case they link to former students and I want to keep to my private life private. No colleagues have ever been suggested either...

I'm a bit worried now as I always look up job applicants on facebook when I receive their application forms (I'm a teacher) - I hope they don't all have me now randomly appearing on their facebook lists!

Report

JulyKit · 24/06/2015 22:07

Yes, I've thought this must be so, as I've had friend suggestions for people with whom I don't have any friends, groups, etc., in common - and I can't think of any other way that Fb would 'connect' us IYSWIM. (Perhaps they've got halfway through a friend request, then not completed it?)

It hasn't struck me as odd, though. Should it have done?