Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

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:
ConstanceMarkYaBitch · 13/10/2015 12:16

No, I'm operating from the "arrogant position" of working for one of the companies FB bought out, who wrote the software.
Hmm

It doesn't matter if you think its the most logical explanation, because IT ISN'T TRUE.

Jaysus.

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 13/10/2015 12:16

The most logical explanation really is that that person searched for me.

It's really not...

SionnachDana · 13/10/2015 12:21

It really is.

Why on earth you think that people who've searched for you wouldn't be factored in to the algorithm, that's unclear.

Also, I'm not ignorant on these matters constance although that is your default assumption here, that you understand these matters and you can explain how it all works.

Unless YOU wrote that algorithm, you don't know.

I know that people who have merely cycled past me, who aren't in my phone book, who haven't emailed me, shared an IPS address, who have no mutual friends, I know they've been suggested to me. I have never checked in to any location. I'm not a member of any groups so big that I don't know who else is in them.

You're starting position is that you know better than me why these people would be suggested on facebook. I find that weird. How would you know!? Your certainty that you know better than I do, that you understand better than I do, whoah..........

SionnachDana · 13/10/2015 12:24

and yet constance, Hmm you seem unable to explain why you ''know'' it's untrue! It just is. Cos you say so. And the rest of us are all confused!!!! WE only believe, mistakenly, that these people have no connection to us. Unlike you, we're unable to accurately judge this! You'd be able to yourself! But other people, no they must be wrong if it jars with what you "know" to be true.

I'll tell you one day you'll see somebody crop up in your ''people you may know'' box. And it won't be a friend of a friend or anybody you've texted or emailed, nobody in a group, nobody from a place you've checked in to, nobody from your work or home............. and finally you'll get it. It'll be some body who overheard your name being read out at the doctor. Somebody who put that name in to fb and searched you.

You won't believe it til it happens to you. Fine. You're not alone. My Father is like you!!! He never believes other people. Other people are all wrong Wink

Brew
ConstanceMarkYaBitch · 13/10/2015 12:25

Well, yes. Because I do know and you, er, don't.

Why on earth you think that people who've searched for you wouldn't be factored in to the algorithm, that's unclear

It's not one algorithm, there is much more to it than that.

ConstanceMarkYaBitch · 13/10/2015 12:25

I've already said how I know. You must have missed it in your self righteous haze.

SionnachDana · 13/10/2015 12:27

Oh that's hilarious. That'd stand up in court. Great way to argue your case Constance!. "I know because er I do and you er don't" Oh boy. I feel like you've wiped the floor with me.

Mark Zuckerburg are you? You wrote the algorithm(s) yourself did you?

SionnachDana · 13/10/2015 12:28

I'm not self-righteous. I just disagree with you.

ConstanceMarkYaBitch · 13/10/2015 12:29

No, seriously, try reading the actual posts. You're coming off kind of extremely crazy, btw. Have a cup of tea or a valium maybe.

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 13/10/2015 12:32

I know that people who have merely cycled past me,

Do you know their name? If not how do you know it is them that FB is suggesting?

SoupDragon · 13/10/2015 12:32

No, I'm operating from the "arrogant position" of working for one of the companies FB bought out, who wrote the software.

I sincerely hope it's not in any kind of role where you need to talk to customers or the public because you're incredibly rude and patronising.

SionnachDana · 13/10/2015 12:33

It's all going to be fine interesting, and I grasp the ''network science'' explanation of course. It is the suggestions that can't be explained by network science that make it obvious that people searching for each other is a factor.

ConstanceMarkYaBitch · 13/10/2015 12:34

Only to those who rant paranoid nonsense. And no, I don't talk to actual people thank fuck I talk to computers!

SionnachDana · 13/10/2015 12:37

it'sallgoingtobefine I will tell you in a pm who I work for if you like, but supposing I am routinely writing letters to strangers to advise them of updates. Supposing they came in to an office and I was nobody more than a stranger behind a desk but then I sent a letter which would have my name at the bottom of it, that would arrive two days later. Then a week later, I would see that person's face and name crop up in my people you know list.
These people might be on my work premises briefly but they're not using our isp! I'm not emailing them or texting them, or checking in to the same places or in groups with them. I've been doing this job for nearly two years and it's since I started this job that I've realised that strangers must be searching for me. I have the same sur name as somebody they might think I'm related to. Perhaps. I don't know why other people do what they do! I do know though, that these people are total strangers.

It has made me hold back on snooping on people I tell you. Used to love a good snoop, I've wound it right back now.

SionnachDana · 13/10/2015 12:39

I'm not paranoid. This isn't worrying me. I just acknowledge it to be true. Constance you want to write me off as an hysteric conspiracy theorist because I don't agree with you. That's a very ''human'' flaw for somebody so proud to be robotic.

SouthAmericanCuisine · 13/10/2015 12:40

I've not read all the whole thread, so this may already have been mentioned, but you can "delete" your search history on FB, which is suggested, on some internet sites, is used by FB to populate "people you may know".

So, snoop away, but delete your search hstory once youre done!

SionnachDana · 13/10/2015 12:41

it's all going to be fine In the case of the cyclist, I knew from his face! I saw a photo with a name I didn't recognise, I clicked on it, and looked and it was him.

TheCuriousOwl · 13/10/2015 12:44

I think that it can be explained but it's obvious why someone in Constance's position can't be more explicit because it is probably reasonably classified information as to exactly how fb mines its data!!

SionnachDana · 13/10/2015 12:48

I think she believes she is privy to information that she's not privy to. She's swallowed the corporate manual, or the party line!

Facebook aren't going to admit that this is a factor. Snooping is the behind the scenes oil that keeps facebook going. Our own interest in each other. But that must me utilised without our own shame shutting the whole engine down.

You can't go round telling people who disagree with you in real life that they're paranoid, hysterical, that they need to take a valium. That kind of behaviour would get a person sacked.

ConstanceMarkYaBitch · 13/10/2015 12:48

Sionnach I'm going to try one more time to explain why we are not having a difference of an opinion.

Say I have a card in my hand, the Ace of Spades. You could spend an age working out which card I have, you could have good reasons, perfect logic as to how you have worked out which card I have in my hand, best answer ever as to how it can only be a three of clubs. You're still wrong and I know because I actually have the card in my hand and am looking at it and you aren't

Fact, vs opinion.

ConstanceMarkYaBitch · 13/10/2015 12:50

Facebook aren't going to admit that this is a factor. Snooping is the behind the scenes oil that keeps facebook going. Our own interest in each other. But that must me utilised without our own shame shutting the whole engine down

As said in my very first post, this would not be a cost effective move and all FB cares about is making money. There is NO advantage to FB to incorporate people you search for as people you may know. It would be a waste of time and money to utilise it.

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 13/10/2015 12:51

But the point is that you "know" all of these people - they are not complete strangers - that means you share connections no matter how tenuous - and FB will know about them.

I know you are in your forties, with two children. You left your partner when your youngest was still very young, he pays you maintenance and you are both happier out of the relationship. You are currently using online dating sites with varying degrees of success.

You work three days a week, and recently went for a job-interview you didn't really want.

You are white, pro-choice, and left wing.

You are 156cms tall with a BMI of 23.5. When you lose weight you gain curves.

I don't know you, but that is just a tiny amount of the data connected to you. Facebook will have far more data on you and everyone that uses it and the capability to efficiently process it. It is simply data mining, all big companies do it, but FBs is more visible.

SionnachDana · 13/10/2015 12:53

oh boy. I think you should start your own religion there.

That's not an explanation. It's more magic. You like magic do you?

You haven't told me one thing (in many posts) that adequately promotes your opinion from opinion to fact. Meanwhile, obviously from my position I'm still left with no explanation as to why these randomers pop up in my 'people you may know box'. All you can offer is rudeness, accusations and sarcasm.

'take a valium'.

You assume I care when you call me paranoid. I don't lose sleep over this. If I've searched for people and they see my name in their 'people you may know' list then [shrug] so be it. I'm not ''hysterical'' or ''paranoid''.

I just do not believe that facebook have pulled up a chair and told you "constance, we're going to tell you the truth".

SurferJet · 13/10/2015 12:54

I must admit, when I've searched people's profiles they suddenly come up on my 'people you might know'? thingy. So presumably I come up on there's? If there's no other connection ( emails, work, location
etc ) then it's obviously you're on that list because you've been checking them out.
So, whilst FB never tells you who's been searching your profile - it kinda does.

SionnachDana · 13/10/2015 12:55

it'sallgoingtobefine that's easy to explain though! You read it on here. Now if you could figure out my real name, then my heart would stop beating.

Swipe left for the next trending thread