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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:
SingingInTheRainstorm · 31/01/2017 19:56

I've had suspicions for a long time that if random people come up with no common friends, they've been snooping on you or looking for someone with your name. If you have mutual friends then I guess that's self explanatory.

StraightWalkingCrab · 31/01/2017 20:03

I've always wondered about this. My profile is set so that only friends of friends can find me. Does that mean if I search for someone who is totally unconnected to anyone on my Facebook (i.e. a member of my family) that I will appear in their suggested friends list?

Original poster
karmassidekick · 31/01/2017 20:50

Straight it's up for debate if you searching for anyone means you show up in their suggested last regardless of your settings.
You might shown up in their list if they have your email address or phone number. Other than that I have no idea.

OP posts:
Niskayuna · 31/01/2017 20:58

I've searched for people and then deleted them from the search record (you can do that by clicking the bar, then edit), and they still show in my 'people you may know'.

Whether I show up in theirs... I don't know :p

Mari50 · 31/01/2017 21:01

Would be easy to do an experiment if there were some will MN volunteers happy to let complete strangers (MN users) search for them on FB and we'd soon find out .. . . . .

Mari50 · 31/01/2017 21:01

I meant willing.
And I'm not on fb anymore so sorry. . .

MaisyPops · 31/01/2017 21:02

But then I've had people in my suggested friends who I've never heard of or met. When I click on them it turns out we have 1 friend in common from university 10 years ago. No reason for them to search me and I've not searched them.

I don't even know how they do it. It makes no sense.

trinity0097 · 31/01/2017 21:04

Some are by location. About a week after I moved house the new owner came up as a suggested friend. I had no contact with her in any other form other than me previously spending lots of time in the same location.

Original poster
karmassidekick · 31/01/2017 21:06

Maisy if you have one person in common ie a mutual friend then that is how facebook is connecting you to each other nothing mysterious about that at all its how facebook works. The mysterious bit is people you have nobody in common with being suggested.

OP posts:
Original poster
karmassidekick · 31/01/2017 21:07

Trinity that's interesting so location services don't just link you by being in the same place at the same time but by being in the same place ever. Did you not have her contact details? Number or email?

OP posts:
Floggingmolly · 01/02/2017 08:36

But how do they get the email address of people who don't have a Facebook account??

Itisnoteasybeingdifferent · 01/02/2017 08:42

Does FB have access to your contacts on your computer and mobile?

I never remember allowing that access... how do I stop it and retrieve all my contacts?

TheChosen1 · 01/02/2017 08:42

I also had my tenant show up as a 'suggested' after I searched her. Whether I then showed up as a 'suggested' for her is the question. I searched my ex's new girlfriend once and the next day I noticed she had put her instagram on private. I wonder whether she did that because Facebook exposed me. How embarrassing!

QODRestYeMerryGentlemen · 01/02/2017 08:46

Oddly though I've searched the same woman regularly (dads OW), I'm sure we both have his details in contacts and yet never has she been suggested as a friend
I kinda hope I've been suggested to her 😈

BarbaraofSeville · 01/02/2017 09:03

I have no idea. It's all very weird. I currently have as a suggested friend someone with a name that is almost identical to that of my deceased sister's widower.

It is a very light profile that looks like it has been set up a few years ago and never really used (no photo but a location and education/work details that are his) of . Obviously I don't know if it is him - he has a few FB friends but none I recognise as his family, who I know several members of to say hello to.

Our family are more or less none contact with him now (we haven't abandoned him, our relationship with him was never that great and he has a very large and supportive family) but I did text him a couple of times before and after my sister passed away, so maybe that's how FB has connected us?

StraightWalkingCrab · 01/02/2017 09:05

Probably itis if you haven't blocked access. On my phone there's a section listing all the apps that have requested access to my address book. I have that set to no new apps so nothing can access contacts without me putting a password in and going through settings to change it. I also have my location blocked.

TwoTwentyGowerRoad · 01/02/2017 09:17

I posted on here about a similar thing OP. I have FB but DH does not. I logged on to FB from his computer and suddenly his exGF came up as someone I might know! As far as I can tell from the answers on here it's because she has his mobile phone number in her phone (still after 15 years) and his phone is linked to his computer and FB have made the connection from mining her phone for numbers and matching it with DHs linked computer.

dontlikememuch1 · 01/02/2017 09:19

My GP's husband has been on mine for ages which is a bit strange . Presumably both our phones have location services on when I see her.

My father and his wife come up too but I have his mobile number.

Formerpigwrestler9 · 01/02/2017 09:21

It's voodoo

TwoTwentyGowerRoad · 01/02/2017 09:24

Or voodoo as Pig says Grin

BillSykesDog · 01/02/2017 09:26

Every time this comes up people loads of MNers deny it just because FB said so, but it does show up people who search you, or at least look at your page.

Blobby10 · 01/02/2017 09:26

I often get someone from work appearing in my 'people you may know' and I know she does 'stalk' my facebook for juicy gossip about me.

Its locked as much as I can but I noticed yesterday that the 'who can search for you' option in security settings had changed from 'friends of friends' to 'anyone'. Might be worth checking this setting out if you are concerned.

HostaFireAndIce · 01/02/2017 09:55

Maybe me blocking is enough of a reaction to keep the sad bastard ticking

Have you actually 'blocked' him? For one thing, he wouldn't know if you had - he just wouldn't be able to find your profile at all. I'd be very surprised too if someone you had blocked would show up in your friend suggestions.

Purplebluebird · 01/02/2017 10:00

It is completely freaking me out. I used to have help from homestart, both in my current town, and in the town I lived in before. The one in my current town has popped up twice, and the one in previous town once. I have no email contact or phone numbers to these people!!! How does fb know?! It can't be a coincidence, seems to weird...

Formerpigwrestler9 · 01/02/2017 10:25

They mine all the data from every device that logs into face book et voila!
omniscience
Cmon people, you know the mantra...
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