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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

iabu:how does facebook 'people you may know' work.

56 replies

karmassidekick · 30/01/2017 21:56

Sorry for Facebook related thread I'm posting for traffic.
If anyone knows how this feature on Facebook works please tell me. Someone told me people who search you come up but that can't be true can it?
Can random people no mutual friends just turn up for no reason?

OP posts:
JournosAreLazy · 30/01/2017 21:58

I think random people can come up if you like the same pages or have checked into the same places.

TizzyDongue · 30/01/2017 22:01

Contacts in your phone and emails.

Also location GPS thingie - if you're in the same geographical area for a while and have your location thing on and someone else is also there for a while then they will show up.

SoOverItNow · 30/01/2017 22:03

I think you get friends of friends come up. I notice if I add someone I get all their friends suggested

mytinselsinatangle · 30/01/2017 22:04

I think it's friends of friends, email addresses and phone numbers from contacts. But I also think that it may be people that have searched you. Recently I have had someone show up that I vaguely know. We don't live in the same area, have no mutual friends on FB and I don't have her email address or phone number so I assume she may have searched for me (if she friend requested me I would say yes!)

Purplepicnic · 30/01/2017 22:04

It works due to dark and mysterious algorithms that Facebook refuse to explain to anyone. They've denied that searches are relevant but no one believes them.

Original poster
karmassidekick · 30/01/2017 22:05

Thank you. I think I'm being stalked.
I never check in anywhere and location is mostly off unless I need my sat nav.
One name keeps popping up I've blocked the same name 8 times now 😣

OP posts:
Ilovetorrentialrain · 30/01/2017 22:06

From mine it seems a mix of friends of friends and people I've searched for.

It may use contacts as well but I don't use a smartphone (only look at Facebook on iPad that doesn't have any contacts on it), so can't tell.

Ilovetorrentialrain · 30/01/2017 22:07

Are you connected by mutual friends?

WaterBelle · 30/01/2017 22:09

I was sitting in a hotel and saw girl I recognised across the bar. I hadn't seen that girl since primary school and wondered was it her or not, wasn't sure. Didn't talk to her at all then or in primary school.
We wouldn't have anyone in common or even live near.
That evening at home looked on Facebook and saw her as a suggested friend.
Either, the location thing saw us both at the same place OR she had noticed me too and decided to search for my name on FB.

I find it very scary tbh.

Floggingmolly · 30/01/2017 22:10

I'm inundated with these emails; and I don't have (have never had) a Facebook account Confused

Original poster
karmassidekick · 30/01/2017 22:10

No mutual friends. They appear to be blank profiles no friends or photos. It's the name of a person I know but not that person.

OP posts:
TheJiminyConjecture · 30/01/2017 22:10

I never used to believe that it tracked searches but I had a suggestion of a fake stalking profile the other day. No friends/pictures/unusual first name and maiden name combo that matched exactly someone who deleted and blocked me. The same person who I know used to use a blank profile to look up other people who had 'slighted' them. All my other suggestions are friends of friends or linked in obvious ways

Original poster
karmassidekick · 30/01/2017 22:12

TheJim do you have that persons contact details? Sounds like a similar problem..

OP posts:
TheJiminyConjecture · 30/01/2017 22:24

No I don't (just checked) and I'm pretty sure my fb isn't linked to my phone number either

AnnaFiveTowns · 30/01/2017 22:48

There was a thread on this a while ago. Somebody had looked up an ex boyfriend that she hadn't seen for years, no mutual friends, lived abroad. The day after she looked him up, she received a friend request from him. She'd changed her name so couldn't understand how he'd found her. When she asked him, he said that she'd come up as a suggested friend.

I also have a similar story regarding my aunt; ex partner from 20 years ago, pre - mobiles and Internet. He now lives abroad, and has done for years; they've had no contact for almost 20 years; no mutual friends. Shortly after she joined Facebook, he kept popping up as a friend suggestion. There was nothing to connect them at all.

I am convinced that if you search for somebody, you then pop up on their friend suggestions. I've stopped looking people up because of it!

Original poster
karmassidekick · 30/01/2017 22:50

Hmm. Think I can conclude this person is either searching for me or I have their contact details then.

OP posts:
TheChosen1 · 30/01/2017 22:56

Yes, I think people who search you do show up because I had my hairdresser show up!

Original poster
karmassidekick · 30/01/2017 23:13

Do you have your hairdressers phone number? Or have your location services on when you go to appointments?

OP posts:
TheChosen1 · 30/01/2017 23:19

Not her phone number. I probably did have my location thing on when I went....but then what made it suggest her and not any and everyone else who I see when I have my GPS on??

Whippingpiccadilly · 30/01/2017 23:32

Someone I had a date with over 6 months ago popped up on mine last week. Met him online, he didn't know my fb name (different surname) and we decided not to see each other again after date. We live in different towns. My phone is not linked to my fb. It freaked me out!

Whippingpiccadilly · 30/01/2017 23:33

Oh and I deleted his number after the date. It was last July!

Whippingpiccadilly · 30/01/2017 23:34

And I'd never looked him up on fb either.

Original poster
karmassidekick · 31/01/2017 19:54

Seems this feature makes lots of people un comfortable or slightly paranoid. I can see why facebook use it of course the whole premise is to connect people together but if they are using search in this way that seems abit...underhand somehow.
Anyway I have my suspicions about this person, not really got any way of finding out for sure and I've double checked my security so they can't see anything anyway. Makes me wonder what the point is. Maybe me blocking is enough of a reaction to keep the sad bastard ticking

OP posts:
user892 · 31/01/2017 19:55

People also keep reappearing if you've ever searched for THEM

user892 · 31/01/2017 19:56

I thought it was a myth that people who search for you show up in the suggested list...

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