Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be horrified that people may know I've viewed their Facebook page?

348 replies

icouldjusteatacroissant · 12/10/2015 14:05

Facebook deny it, but there's massive talk on the net that if you look at someone's page, you pop up on their suggested list or people you may know list. Maybe not straight away, but you do appear at some point

Am I the only one who looks at their ex's or whoevers pages, photos, etc?

I am horrified they may know I've been snooping Shock

OP posts:
BinToHellAndBack · 12/10/2015 15:19

I never understand how people can claim and promise that this categorically isn't the case, given that Facebook themselves don't say it's not! Facebook are vague on the matter - here's a quote from their site:

"Can people tell that I've looked at their profile? No, Facebook doesn't let people track who views their profile. Third-party apps also can't provide this functionality."

Saying that users can't track who views their profile really isn't the same thing as denying that some friend suggestions may be generated from viewing another persons profile.

I know that I've searched for a particular person (say Joe Bloggs) but accidentally clicked on the profile for a Jane Blooogles living on the other side of the world (no friends in common), only for Jane to then keep popping up as a suggested friend... so I am suspicious! That said, if it matters hugely to you, just don't use Facebook.

Topseyt · 12/10/2015 15:27

I had one instance where it suggested as a friend for me an Italian who had been an exchange partner of mine some 25 years previously. There was even no internet then, and we had had absolutely NO electronic contact of any kind. Not by landline, not by mobile phone, not by email. Hell, not even by snail mail. Nothing. Yet there she was.

We had no mutual friends, and we wouldn't even have had each others phone numbers.

I'll admit that I was mystified by that on. She wouldn't have been able to look me up accurately as she would only have known my maiden name, which I haven't used since my wedding in 1993.

Ilovetorrentialrain · 12/10/2015 15:27

If someone looks at your page they may come up as a friend suggestion. However you don't get to see precisely what they've looked at (photos or just posts).

To the people saying this is not the case where do you get that information from?

It absolutely is the case that Facebook will use profile views to suggest friends.

Topseyt · 12/10/2015 15:28

*that one!! Grrrrr, bloody phone.

blibblobblub · 12/10/2015 15:29

Can it suggest "people you may know" if they have your number saved but you don't have theirs?

I ask because a work colleague popped up in mine this week. We have no friends in common, I don't have her email address, I don't have my workplace info on my profile, I don't have her phone number.

The only thing I can think is that I once gave her my number when we were going out for drinks, so perhaps she has it saved and has searched for friends via her phone contacts?

It's bloody weird.

FATEdestiny · 12/10/2015 15:31

I'm new to Facebook, I joined July 2015. I didn't give Facebook my phone number, had the tightest privacy settings and gave only my name and information considered essential.

In the 'people you may know' space from first joining was my brothers ex partner. They broke up 10 years ago, lives in a different part of the country to me, we have had no contact in the last 10 years. I don't believe he has ever emailed or phoned me, if he did it would have been a different email or phone number.

How did my brothers ex show on the suggested list?

I have assumed it must be because he searched for me (to be nosy into my brothers life?) in the time before I had a Facebook account. That seemed logical to me. I didn't consider it some huge conspiracy.

miaowroar · 12/10/2015 15:35

I will HAVE to give out snooping! Blush

I went on someone's page (NOT an ex thankfully) and because of the funny mouse I have on my laptop ended up sending them a friend request without realising it. You could have knocked me down with a feather when they accepted it (damn - I didn't want them seeing my news feed every day, but it was my own fault).

Serves me right for being nosy. Blush Blush

miaowroar · 12/10/2015 15:35

Sorry - give up snooping (double blush)

LeaveMyWingsBehindMe · 12/10/2015 15:36

If anyone is in any doubt about this, just set up a separate fb account in a fake name, using a different email address with no friends and no photos.

Do all your snooping from there.

And on your main account block those people so they cannot see you and you cannot snoop accidentally or when drunk from your main account.

Job done.

LeaveMyWingsBehindMe · 12/10/2015 15:38

And remember, there's no such thing as FB snooping or stalking. People need to learn to use their settings properly if they want to keep their stuff private. If they can't be bothered to tighten up their settings they are putting stuff out there in the public domain.

catfordbetty · 12/10/2015 16:02

Anyway, OP, what was your ex up to? Anything interesting?

Headagainstwall · 12/10/2015 16:05

Yes mermaid FB sent a friend request on my behalf, somehow. I doubt there's anything in the settings as all my privacy settings are quite high (I have a psycho stalker ex boyfriend) but will double check, thanks x

MoriartyIsMyAngel · 12/10/2015 16:10

Some of my family tracked down my old FB page, and I found out because I suddenly started getting 'Do you know 'DP' and 'SIL'?' notifications by email. I used my unmarried name and there was no connection between us for FB to pick up on. They found me another way, and were just being nosy.

Also, I found a bio half-siblings FB page, and a couple of months later got a message from my bio-DF that I was welcome to 'friend' them all if I liked.

So, yes, it does happen. But if you have mutual friends/family FB can sometimes suggest your name that way too. So if they ask, tell them that!

specialsubject · 12/10/2015 16:14

it's not true, although it is a handy myth to sell apps to and mine data from the gullible. FB use clever algorithms and also scrape your internet history and your email. But there is NO record as to whose profile you have viewed.

urban myth that has been around for some time.

Saying that users can't track who views their profile really isn't the same thing as denying that some friend suggestions may be generated from viewing another persons profile.

correct. No-one said it was. The question is 'can someone see that I have viewed their profile?' the answer from facebook in nice short words is 'no'.

Be aware that it IS true on Linkedin, people do know who has viewed their profile.

if you are bothered, get off facebook.

MoriartyIsMyAngel · 12/10/2015 16:15

Sorry, that should have read 'DF', not 'DP'.

Garrick · 12/10/2015 16:16

That was my question, too, catford Grin

I'm still shaking my head at all the PPs who say they've no links to their landlord/cleaner/colleagues!

Facebook would be silly not to include pages viewed in its algorithms, but we all have so many links to one another that there's no way you could identify a single source. Topsey, your exchange student may have listed her place of education (which has links with yours), have liked or 'been to' your town, have stayed friends with another student or simply have some interests in common?

LinkedIn's suggestions make me burst out laughing sometimes: it suggests connections with people called names like Magical Robot, who were members' avatars in a virtual reality game I stopped playing years ago. I could have a fascinating professional profile, if only they were real people with LinkedIn pages.

MoriartyIsMyAngel · 12/10/2015 16:19

I'd love to think it wasn't true, but the email and name I used for my old FB account had no connection to anyone I knew - purposely.

Does anyone have a theory on how FB could have suggested my DF and SIL to me as people I may know, and only them? Over a dozen of my close family members are on FB. Like I said, they could find me, knowing what they know, but there shouldn't have been any connections for FB to pick up on.

But anyway, I agree with whoever suggested you open a fake and private FB account for snooping!

Ness18 · 12/10/2015 16:26

Absolutely not true. Snoop all you like...

ThatsDissapointing · 12/10/2015 16:27

It could be places you live, work or go to college or it could be that you are 'liking' the same things (I think) or their phone numbers are in your contacts. There WILL be a link and it's not that you have checked out their Facebook pages.

Anotherusername1 · 12/10/2015 16:33

It is not true. They will end up on your "people you may know" page. You will only appear on their "people you may know" page if you know them somehow, live in the same place, are as member of the same group, have had email contact. But it does not happen simply from viewing someone's profile.

LinkedIn is different, they do know you've had a nose at their profile unless you go anonymous, but then you can't see who has viewed your page either.

Original poster
icouldjusteatacroissant · 12/10/2015 16:35

yes catford. he's just married wife number 4. I was wife 1. someone said she looks like me, so I had a look. he had 200 wedding photos on there.. with his children tagged so I looked at them too, and dozens of old friends from 30 years ago. even my dh says she looks like me

OP posts:
Garrick · 12/10/2015 16:40

Fab, icould, you got a real result! A very satisfying snoop, if you don't mind my saying so Grin

museumum · 12/10/2015 16:48

If you look at a person they can come up in "people you may know" for you.
But that doesn't mean that you are in their "people you may know".

Frusso · 12/10/2015 16:50

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SionnachDana · 12/10/2015 16:57

it's true and I've known this for ages.