Page 3 | To think "friend suggestions" on Facebook are people who may have viewed your profile?

ashbeebb · 2021-03-10T09:50:55+00:00

Apologies if this has been done to death. Recently I've had two strange things happen. I have been having CBT and my counsellor appeared as a friend suggestion with a magnifying glass next to her name. Now my phone number isn't registered to my Facebook and email is different to my email. No friends in common obviously. Then also my ex of two years ago randomly popped up yesterday. I've not got any mutual friends or live in same area etc. I don't even use my Facebook much. Aibu surely this can't be just a coincidence can it? I know Facebook have said nobody can find out who looks at who.

FortunesFave · 10/03/2021 13:10

It IS possible now but only on the IOS app. Here.

The feature is buried deep in your privacy settings and is only available on the iOS app for now. To access the list of who has viewed your profile, open the main drop-down menu (the 3 lines) and scroll all the way down to “Privacy Shortcuts.” There, just below the new “Privacy Checkup” feature, you will find the new “Who viewed my profile?” option.

tisonlymeagain · 10/03/2021 13:33

@FortunesFave

It IS possible now but only on the IOS app. Here.

The feature is buried deep in your privacy settings and is only available on the iOS app for now. To access the list of who has viewed your profile, open the main drop-down menu (the 3 lines) and scroll all the way down to “Privacy Shortcuts.” There, just below the new “Privacy Checkup” feature, you will find the new “Who viewed my profile?” option.

That's not actually a thing.

CriticalWoman · 10/03/2021 14:28

@StepOutOfLine

Of course it doesn't!

What it does pick up is things you Google, websites and apps you look at etc. Can't believe people still think this.

Because its true. The 2 exes who popped up on my "friends you may know" - I haven't seen either of them in 24 plus years, I live in a different city to them and to the one I lived when I knew them, we have no mutual friends, when I was last in contact with them none of us had mobiles, emails or FB accounts. I belong to a few groups on FB but the likelihood of my exes being on those same groups is minimal. The 2 exes didn't know, each other either. If they haven't looked me up at some time then it's a huge coincidence that their names appeared to me.

Blueberries0112 · 10/03/2021 14:30

I truly believe it is coming from someone who viewed your profile,

jamthencreamyoufool · 10/03/2021 14:35

I truly believe it is coming from someone who viewed your profile

Myth. My sister works for Facebook. It's not how it works (it was looked at but it was neither efficient nor desirable)

CriticalWoman · 10/03/2021 14:54

@jamthencreamyoufool

I truly believe it is coming from someone who viewed your profile

Myth. My sister works for Facebook. It's not how it works (it was looked at but it was neither efficient nor desirable)

But in that case how can my experience - 2 posts above yours - be explained?

Everydaydragon · 10/03/2021 14:59

Definitely. My dds reception teacher popped up on mine and weve definitely got no mutual friends. Her name is different to, the way lots of teachers alter them slightly but the photo was her and I could work out the name difference. Dont think our phones are ever near each other either, I leave mine in the car at pick up/drop off so theres atleast a 200m gap

goldielockdown2 · 10/03/2021 15:00

Yep, being searched for by a person is one of the many reasons they will come up as a suggested friend.

Blueberries0112 · 10/03/2021 15:15

“Myth. My sister works for Facebook. It's not how it works (it was looked at but it was neither efficient nor desirable)“

So many people are saying the same thing, they don’t understand how someone who they haven’t seen for so many years and no connection could just show up? There has to be an explanation

jamthencreamyoufool · 10/03/2021 15:20

So many people are saying the same thing, they don’t understand how someone who they haven’t seen for so many years and no connection could just show up? There has to be an explanation

Of course there is an explanation. But I'm not going to explain it in detail here, my sister would kill me!

TalktotheFoot · 10/03/2021 15:25

I think that they are loosely based on likes or comments you have made on a post that may have been shared by a friend of a friend, which has many other comments, also shared by other randoms, which appear on their friends-of-friends feeds.

Due to me belonging to a FB hobby group (a UK one but shared and commented on internationally), I am constantly getting hundreds and hundreds of people suggested every day that FB thinks I might know, all from random countries all over the world such as South Africa, Japan, Lithuania, you name it. I also get friends requests from same. No, I don't know you. Fuck off.

Quirrelsotherface · 10/03/2021 15:25

You will get told on MN that it doesn't because a lot on here just don't believe it but it definitely does do that.

Anniegetyourgun · 10/03/2021 15:37

I can believe it's one of the reasons, but I would be very surprised if it were the main one.

I got my first smart phone about 2.5 years ago and DIL wanted me to join their (private, locked-down) Facebook group. I had only just created the profile - using as little personal data as I could get away with - when it started throwing friend suggestions at me, including people I'd worked with years ago (in different jobs), whose number I had never even had on my previous mobile, and with whom I had no desire at all to get in touch, ever. There's no way such people would have reason to start looking at my profile the moment it came into existence. It spooked me out, frankly. I deleted my account a couple of weeks later, around the time yet another news report came out about how they like to use your data, and that of any contacts in your phone, to send you stuff.

DIL suggested I join their Whatsapp group instead. I downloaded it, only to see the T&C included the interesting fact that it, and Instagram, are "part of the Facebook family" and will be sharing data with those apps. Sneaky feckers. So that ain't happening either. Sorry DIL. Can't be doing with any of that.

A colleague says if you use Google they have all the same information about you anyway. Well maybe, but they don't tell it to people I don't want to hear from - as far as I know - yet.

ComtesseDeSpair · 10/03/2021 15:41

@Quirrelsotherface

You will get told on MN that it doesn't because a lot on here just don't believe it but it definitely does do that.

If you have evidence that it definitely does do that, the CMA would love to hear from you. Digital algorithms and transparency with consumers is their new DMU’s priority.

jamthencreamyoufool · 10/03/2021 15:44

You will get told on MN that it doesn't because a lot on here just don't believe it but it definitely does do that.

And your evidence for that is.....

Folks, just because you can't think of another way it might work, doesn't mean there isn't one.

LittlestBoho · 10/03/2021 16:15

@jamthencreamyoufool

You will get told on MN that it doesn't because a lot on here just don't believe it but it definitely does do that.

And your evidence for that is.....

Folks, just because you can't think of another way it might work, doesn't mean there isn't one.

What evidence does your made up sister have then?

I posted earlier about one of my suggestions being a woman I knew years before Facebook existed. We had no friends in common, no shared workplaces, she didn't have my email or phone number nor I hers, we had no shared interests and I moved to a different country 10 years before I got the suggestion.

She was searching for me. There is no way that any algorithm would know we knew each other.

Original poster

ashbeebb · 10/03/2021 16:16

So how would a ex I hadn't seen in two years randomly pop up on suggested friends?
When I have no mutual friends
Live miles away
I don't like any pages he's part of
Doesn't have my email or phone number
What can be that reason?

OP posts:

Quirrelsotherface · 10/03/2021 17:04

jamthencreamyoufool should be able to answer that one.

LadyDanburysCane · 10/03/2021 17:28

Facebook gave me a friend recommendation which was someone who works in my local shop. She can’t have looked for me as she wouldn’t know my name. She came up because we are so frequently in the same place (ie the shop).

Original poster

ashbeebb · 10/03/2021 17:29

I can understand if you go to the same places etc
I just don't understand the people who you never see anywhere etc

OP posts:

LadyDanburysCane · 10/03/2021 17:34

@FortunesFave

It IS possible now but only on the IOS app. Here.

The feature is buried deep in your privacy settings and is only available on the iOS app for now. To access the list of who has viewed your profile, open the main drop-down menu (the 3 lines) and scroll all the way down to “Privacy Shortcuts.” There, just below the new “Privacy Checkup” feature, you will find the new “Who viewed my profile?” option.

Not a real thing!

Acrasia · 10/03/2021 17:42

Richard Osman once showed up in my suggested friends list. Always wondered how that happened 😂

Original poster

ashbeebb · 10/03/2021 17:47

@FortunesFave yeah that doesn't work

OP posts:

crystalcherry87 · 10/03/2021 18:14

@SoupDragon

So the only thing I can think is that he searched for her and probably other family members and then showed up in her recommended.

Or he checked into a place your sister had too.

In this instance I don't think so as he lived over a hundred miles away ( long distance) relationship) and she has mental health issues which mean she doesn't really go out. My maiden name is quite unique as well so she would have been easy to find.

Notanorthadontist · 10/03/2021 18:28

A very well known actor keeps popping up on mine. I’m absolutely certain he hasn’t got a clue I exist, let alone searched for me. However, I know that his dad is a friend of one of my friends.