to think that 'People You May Know' function could ruin Facebook.

[takemeuptheeiffeltower]

We all like Facebook because it helps us keep in touch with people, especially if they live far away,.
But if we're honest, whilst we are keeping in touch most of us also like to have an annonymous nose around to see who's doing what! It's part of the fun.
Anyway, it's human nature to be inquisitive nosey
But if people can see that you have searched for them and vice versa, then I can see people leaving FB in droves.

Have FB gone too far this time?

Maybe we get assigned random strangers?

Ottilia

It's not paranoia to wonder about the algorithms Facebook uses. It's an interesting question - especially since Facebook pulls so much of your data from so many sources and isn't exactly open about explaining it

Its paranoid to assume when youve been told otherwise. Its an untrue rumour, I know this for a fact.

People should be able to question something without being accused of paranoia which is a bit of a cheap shot

As people have pointed out, the friends you may know function has always been there, but it used to be really low key and unintrusive, eg mainly friends of friends that were suggested.
But it has changed and people are feeling uneasy about the privacy aspect of it.
They need to put it back to how it was.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with people questioning things.

I'm not being paranoid, I did say I don't know for certain; but I can't think of any other explanation for them appearing in my list.

Perhaps a facebook expert can explain why it happened?

Has anyone thought - the random people you don't know who get suggested may well have been trying to find someone they did know with the same /similar name as you? And the autofill/suggest thing doesn't help!
I was trying to find someone (for non-stalker reasons) and every time I tried to search for them it kept filling in the rest of the search/suggesting a name for me. I ended up on this complete strangers page 3 or 4 times.
(I did swear a lot - I may have maturely done a 'will you just fuck off?' search)
Wonder if I turned up in her people you might know?

Someone has just popped up on mine that isn't a mutual friend. It is someone who's DH was bothering me a couple of years ago and I told her. I haven't searched for her as I know her DH cancelled her FB two years ago to stop people contacting her regarding her DH.
She must have searched for me?

I've just had a look at my "people you may know" list.

They are either: mutual friends
people I've searched for or people with the same name
people with whom I have no connection but live locally
one guy who is the dad of someone my son played football with so that was probably via email
other people with whom I've had email contact or with whom I'm connected on Twitter or LinkedIn
people who are members of FB groups I am a member of or used to be a member of.

There's nobody who is completely random.

I didn't say I'd seen it, I said I know it. And there are endless links saying the same, but paranoid people ignore them all.

there is not a single person on my "people you may know" who I have ever looked up....I double checked any excuse to not get dressed for another half hour
I regularly malinger about looking for colleagues/studenty chums/school pals because I can and am of a generation almost 50 who tend not to indulge in much social media.

there's maybe half a dozen complete randoms on there, similar amount of local random folk, mostly it's friends of friends or people who are in groups that I belong to

I have my security/privacy settings very high on there, maybe if you are less than vigilant it does have some bearing on the suggestions, but then that's an issue of your own making and not fb's

Is that why David Beckham keep getting suggested to me as a friend I might know? He is secretly stalking me?

If you have the facebook app on your phone and allow it to, it will search through your contacts book.
Then, if any of the people in your contacts have added their mobile number to their facebook account, it will suggest them.
Which is why my waxing lady, dog walker, and the woman also witnessed someone crashing their bike and swapped numbers at the scene so I could let her know how the man was, are all suggested as people I may know. The last one took me a long time to work out

Facebook categorically state that you can't find out who has viewed your profile:

m.facebook.com/help/205685226136386?refid=69

Some of the people that come up
In my people you might know suggestions are people I have looked up, some are friends of friends.

The woman from the US department of defence is a complete mystery.

I have a fake stalker account on FB. Doesn't everyone.....?

Hell, yes. It's essential.

It still AMAZES me that there are grown adults out there who either do not know how to operate facebook privacy settings, or just can't be bothered.

Yep, random people who I have searched for pop up in my 'people you may know section' too.

In addition, people who I have accidentally searched for also appear. When I say accidentally, I mean when I spelled a name incorrectly, or when I click on someone with the same name, mistaking them for someone else.

These are people that both I and people I know have NO connection to, yet facebook continues to suggest them (in addition to the people I'm genuinely having a nosey at!). So it can't be paranoia.

I wonder if the total randoms that appear in the list are examples of this happening in reverse, i.e. they are the people that have accidentally clicked on my profile at sometime.

noblegiraffe, in the link you provide, it says you can't track who views your profile. I'm not convinced that occasionally being shown someone who's viewed your profile at some point counts as the same thing....

The day FB lets users know who has searched for them will be the day FB it loses millions overnight.

This all makes me so glad i'm not, and have not ever been on FB.

You see, it wouldn't bother me if I knew who was searching for me, and nor would it bother me if other people knew I was searching for them. I search loads of people on the internet, mostly out of idleness and curiosity, and so do most people I know.

What does bother me is that Facebook is very secretive about how it manages these things, and will happily mine our data, but not tell us how it uses them.

Who doesn't have their privacy settings to friends though? It's hardly stalking if they can see cover/profile pics and possibly any posts where you've been tagged by someone with an open profile (none whose tagged me ever has)

When I go into "see how your profile looks" to none friends there is nothing there to stalk

Me too, blue, but I still get total randoms on " people you may no". It's not paranoia, and I still use Facebook so I'm not that worried by it, I'm just interested in how Facebook generates these lists. And I'm not sure why they are so secretive about it

I don't allow tagging