AIBU to wonder if Facebook shows who has viewed your profile?

I get loads of ‘people you may know’ that are totally random. No idea how FB decides who to suggest. I’ve also had friend requests from people I don’t recognise. My settings are private so really no idea how that works.

There will be some sort of connection that you’ve either overlooked or aren’t aware of.

The people you may know thing is a massive myth. People who show up there have some sort of connection to you, even if you’ve got no friends in common on FB. They’ll show up there if you’ve looked at their profile, but not the other way around.

The only way you can see if someone who you’re not friends with has viewed your profile is if they’ve viewed your public stories. That only became a thing a few months ago. Prior to that they’d just appear as ‘others’.

The people I get on my page I haven’t a clue who they are. I do follow very random and oppositely opposed groups just to mess with the algorithm
I have it for FBMP mainly

I’m sure that “People You May Know” is also from having their phone number?

It’s the internet algorithm. If you post in a group or comment on anything have a shared connection with anyone online that has a Facebook account, they’ll show up in your ‘pymk’ sooner or later.

how many times have you searched or shopped online and then been bombarded with ads for the same or similar things as soon as you log in to fb 🤷‍♀️

Zuckerberg and Meta throw everything at their algorithms and pay a huge amount people and money to achieve what they do.

I think when you get friend suggestions it's a mixture of whose profile you looked at and also just people who you share mutuals with

Algorithms are much more complicated than that and the experience of one random lady can't possibly be extrapolated to be certain about how Facebook works for everyone

I seem to have loads of DC's teachers on my people you may know. I have never searched them on FB and I don't think they would even know who I am as they haven't all been direct class teachers for my DC.
I think phone location and proximity plays a role in 'people you may know' as it shows more teachers on mine at the same times as parents evenings and school events etc.

My current "People you may know" list (and I don't check it that often) shows loads of people with mutual friends - plus a random guy who I doubt has browsed my profile - he just has interests in common and seems to have millions of followers, so I assume he is more a "page" broadcasting his views than a person, and has come up because FB thinks I may also want to read his thoughts.
Also one person whose business page I follow.
Also an "extra" profile belonging to a Facebook friend. No apparent mutual friends, but I think there will be some.
Conversely there are many people I have browsed who don't appear. So I hope I wouldn't be in their lists!

How would you know if have mutual friends when some people hide their friends list completely? If someone random shows up in my "people you may know" list I assume they are mutual friends with someone who hides their list, or are on an interest group. I've looked people up and had them appear as suggested friends, but others I've looked up never appear at all. As a group administrator I look people up all the time to check they aren't bots...would hate to think I then ended up as a suggested friend, and even more that random people from my past would get me as a suggestion simply because I'd browsed their profile through curiosity (or even through wishing them well and wanting to see how they were!).

Whilst you can't see who looked at your profile directly, you can see if you looked at stories etc. But by searching you their profile you have "feed" the algorithm with information so it will try and connect you.

This definitely happens on Facebook. If somebody pops up as a suggested friend, it means you have mutual friends or their phone number/ email in your phone; if you have none of these then it means they have viewed your profile. I know this happens because my aunt had an ex from pre - Internet days, so no mobile / email for him. They had no mutual friends and then he suddenly popped up as a suggested friend.

I was feeling nostalgic a couple of weeks ago and searched for 2 people I haven't seen for years. I couldn't find either of them so assumed they weren't on Facebook - there were others with the same or similar names but not the ones I was looking for. Strangely enough, a couple of days later one of them appeared in 'people you may know'. I thought it was a coincidence but now I know it isn't because the same thing happened 2 weeks later ' there before my very eyes was the other person. It's not coincidence, it's bots or algorithms working in the background without people realising.

I suspect its because you looked them up, and if you have friends in common (which you surely do if you went to school together), facebook worked out you know each other and suggested you to them as a friend.
Or, their dad died, and they thought about their old friend from school and how life is short, and wanted to get in touch.

Proximity is a thing, definitely. I am also a bit narrow-eyed about letting it have access to microphone; mention a name and up they appear on the 'Friends You May know' list.

Facebook does do this - I know that for certain. If you look someone up you will appear right at the top of their people you may know and you'll stay there for ages ! Don't look at profiles unless you're comfortable with this - so not your boss or people from work or any other random person you thought you'd have a nose at . If you do block them afterwards. I hate this about Facebook and think it's really bad of them to do it .

That's madness! 😀

Proximity is definitely a thing, I had a friend suggestion of someone who sometimes comes into my work

I know his name but I'd be amazed if he any clue about mine so it's not that he's been searching for me and we dont have any mutual friends

Yes, I also wondered this with people who you have no mutual friends with.

both facebook and instagram removed the feature when you could see who visited your profile/other peoples profiles nearly a decade ago due to “privacy”. However, what both do now is that if you view/search someone then they will end up in your “suggested friends” and you in theirs. Annoyingly facebook does that for people you also pass by based on your location! I figured that out when I was on a road trip, literally bumped into random stranger accidentally on the cafe and that very same person was in my suggested friends the next day. I stopped using facebook…

Did they have a live story at the time? As if you look at their feed and they have a published a story in the last 24 hours (and it’s on their profile feed) you will appear to them as a viewer, even if you didn’t click the story icon on their profile picture. I have been caught out by this!

This definitely happens. If you look at theirs, your name will appear on theirs

I don’t know a single person on my “friends I might know” bit and I doubt that these people would know me. A lot live in countries I have never even visited

Facebook also shoves people you might know in there, if you have been in close proximity (some computer bid from police taught me it) he said definitely if you both have location on and appear to be near each other on numerous occasions.