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Original poster

How does Facebook know!!!?

19 replies

AWimbaAllTheWay · 20/12/2011 21:34

Facebook has been correctly guessing where my photos were taken. As in a little message pops up with one of my photos and 'was this photo taken in Glasgow?'

It correctly guessed 6 out of 7 album locations! The one it got wrong it suggested the same incorrect location to my sister for her photos taken at the same location at the same time Confused.

I'm pretty sure I didn't enter the location of these photos, so how does it know?

Freaking me out.

OP posts:
seaside72 · 20/12/2011 21:38

Are the photos from your phone? If they are that's where it's getting the info from, most smart phones have location services which use are effectively like GPS tracking. I have turned off the location option on my phone as I don't like it - very big brother!

Original poster
AWimbaAllTheWay · 20/12/2011 21:39

Shameless bump because I'm tired and want to go to bed but will lie awake pondering this unless someone can give me a satisfactory explanation, other than my sister's which is that fb pay someone to trawl through our photos guessing where they were taken Hmm.

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Original poster
AWimbaAllTheWay · 20/12/2011 21:40

x-post!

No, not from phone.

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Magneto · 20/12/2011 21:42

I've not noticed the location tracking, but I have noticed the face recognition!

It gets it right most of the time but can't tell the difference between me and my sister (we're similar but really easy to tell apart!) and dh and his two brothers! It's very clever, if a bit creepy!

Magneto · 20/12/2011 21:48

None of my albums have any location info on them at all, wonder why?

Original poster
AWimbaAllTheWay · 20/12/2011 21:56

It was strange, my sister commented it had happened to her, and as I was chatting on her wall about it my photos popped up and it started asking me too. First time it's done it, must be a new thing. Not with all my albums either, just a bizarre selection.

It's been doing the face recognition for a while which I tend to ignore, very odd it recognises your family resemblance.

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seaside72 · 20/12/2011 22:03

OK I just checked my FB and it is doing the same thing! It is very spooky - sometimes FB scares me!
Strangely there are some pics of my house which has name (not a number iyswim) which is the same as a place in Spain and it is asking me if the pics were taken in .... (house name), Valencia, Spain
I don't like it Xmas Confused

Original poster
AWimbaAllTheWay · 20/12/2011 22:07

That is scary!

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Original poster
AWimbaAllTheWay · 20/12/2011 22:09

I'm going to go and see if there's any connection with the location in the photo it got wrong and it's suggestion.

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RustyBear · 20/12/2011 22:11

It's asked me about one, but that was DD's graduation, and as Dd is one of my friends and has her uni in her profile, it wouldn't be that difficult to work it out.

Original poster
AWimbaAllTheWay · 20/12/2011 22:15

But how does it work it out, some long complicated programme cross referencing all the elements in a photo with the other info on you profile?

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Original poster
AWimbaAllTheWay · 20/12/2011 22:16

Still trying to find a connection with Portsmouth and my parents house which is no-where near Portsmouth.

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Original poster
AWimbaAllTheWay · 20/12/2011 22:18

Right, I'm going to bed, hopefully someone will have an answer by morning Grin. It's going to irritate me until I know how they're doing it!

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Original poster
AWimbaAllTheWay · 20/12/2011 22:23

Found a thread about this on digitalspy, not that they seem to know the answer either!

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niceguy2 · 20/12/2011 23:37

You know what? I've been wondering that too!

At first I also thought that they'd somehow read GPS information from my photo but then I realised that some of the photos were from a camera which didn't have any fancy pants features.

Original poster
AWimbaAllTheWay · 21/12/2011 07:44

So still non the wiser, it is very clever.

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IShallWearMidnight · 21/12/2011 08:01

some kind of cross referencing with google maps perhaps?

lazydog · 21/12/2011 08:30

I think it's a combination. They get some help from obvious things like album titles (hence them asking me if a certain pic of my family in a restaurant in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (from the album "Puerto Vallarta 2009") was taken in a restaurant called Puerto Vallarta, somewhere in the US... The odd thing was that it was obviously wrong, but they didn't make the same wrong assumption for outdoor/beach shots, so there must be some analysis of the content of the photo going on...

I've also known people who've been freaked out because photos of a party at their house, that they took with a normal digital camera (so no location info) have been suggested as having been taken at the correct location, but they've then realised that other guests have tagged themselves or been tagged in those pics, and have given their location at that time via the usual cell status update phone info.

Still pretty stalkerish of Facebook, and I have one Facebook friend who insists that neither of those scenarios apply to some of the (accurate) suggestions that Facebook have offered him! Confused

lazydog · 21/12/2011 08:34

"the usual cell status update phone info" ????????

Shall I try again in English?

"Cell phone originating status updates, that have location information attached to them."

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