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Facebook - People you may know!!

60 replies

Cheeseandhamtoast · 12/04/2015 22:13

Logged onto Facebook today and in the People you may know list there was:

My old gardener - I didnt know his surname and he doesn't know mine, I have never searched for him, and we have no friends in common - all his friends list are Portugese.

My DS's barber! - all his friends are Spanish, and no friends in common. I don't have his phone number or email.

A girl my DS was friendly with at nursery, who moved away to another area and I have no contact with.

Why are these people on this list? Does it mean they have searched for me? If we don't share any friends in common, how can they be suggested to me? They are also not on any groups I am on.

OP posts:
SabrinnaOfDystopia · 12/04/2015 23:30

Oh no. I recently searched a whole load of people from my past that I had no interest in contacting ever again - but just wanted to see what they up to now- ex colleagues, old boyfriends and so on.

They've all turned up on my 'people you might know' list.

Please tell me I won't turn up on theirs?

thehumanjam · 12/04/2015 23:34

I know Sabrina that always worries me too!

I still feel sick when I think of Linkedin. I thought it was private and it isn't. I have searched out ex boyfriends, their wives, neighbours, school gate mums and their husbands... When my friend told me that people know when you have looked at their profile my friend said that the colour drained from my face and she thought I was having a heart attack. Because of this I have a deep mistrust of LinkedIn and rarely use it.

1944girl · 12/04/2015 23:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Momagain1 · 12/04/2015 23:38

Maybe I should unfriend, or at least unfollow, far more of my friends in the US. I am still constantly told I may want to be friends with an ever expanding circle of friends of (multiple) friends or having businesses recommended, even people/businesses who werent there when I moved away, 2 years ago.

Meanwhile, my small group of local friends and activities and businesses doesnt seem to generate much advice from FB, and I would like to build connections here.

There was a point where I was actively stalking through the friend's lists of the first few local FB friends, sending requests to anyone whose face i recognised, and a few who had their kid's picture, and I recognised that! I felt creepy and stopped once I had about a dozen, hoping the thing would evolve naturally. It hasnt. I just set myself up to see the hings me (or my kid) werent invited to.

Momagain1 · 12/04/2015 23:38

THINGS not hings

BillyJoel · 12/04/2015 23:43

Linked in suggested i connect with my primary school boyfriend. I have not seen or heard of him for 30 years. Wtf?

Ginrummy · 12/04/2015 23:44

I thought it was friends of friends. What I'm finding creepy right now is that recent Google searches I've done, ie debenhams, or a brand are popping up on the advert bar here on MN. Big brother is watching...

SwedishEdith · 12/04/2015 23:47

Yes but I phoned the barber shop number to make an appointment but the individual barbers who work there should not have my phone number - but the individual barbers will probably have the barber shop number as well - so a common link?

So far, the people I know are all people I've looked for. Did get spooked when an ex turned up but remembered I'd looked at his profile. In fact, they're nearly all people I've looked for recently.

Thankfully, I don't do Linkedin - I remember reading on here about it naming and shaming you Shock Grin

SabrinnaOfDystopia · 13/04/2015 01:26

Oh, thehumanjam, I knew about linkedin already! A friend of mine fell foul of that too - in an impossibly embarrassing way that I couldn't possibly relate on here!

Does anyone actually, definitively know how Fb searches work?

Funnytobe · 13/04/2015 01:33

If you search for/Facebook stalk somebody, you will show up in their people you may know.

I have recently been caught out big time doing this by searching for a person who didn't know me. I am being vague about details as it is a sensitive situation but they now know who I am and have found out details about me and my family so I have had to change my privacy settings and block them.

The only link between us is that I searched for them.

SabrinnaOfDystopia · 13/04/2015 01:42

Fuuuuck!

That's embarrassing Blush

NaughtyRed82 · 13/04/2015 01:52

Hhmm I was mooching the other day and searching up about 3 people being nosey on their walls and now thinking shitttt will they see my name pop up :s they only know my first name too, so if I suddenly appear surname and all then there probably gonna realise I've searched and found them first aren't they.............ConfusedBlush

Tiptops · 13/04/2015 03:01

Yes, I think if you search for someone they will see you in their 'people you may know' list.

Really creepy feature. If someone had searched for you but not sent a friend request surely suggesting you may know each other is pointless - one or both people don't want to connect.

askalice · 13/04/2015 06:59

But what about the truly random people who turn up on your "People you may know"?

I seem to have quite a few women from Spain and Latin America on mine, and there I have no connection whatsoever with any of them Confused

youmakemydreams · 13/04/2015 07:54

There will be a link between all the ransoms however remote. It suggests people who like the same
Business pages, joined the same groups eg buy sell and swap, you don't even need to have checked in at a place for the location services to pick it up just post from somewhere and it knows where you are so will start suggesting people that have posted from there too.
It really isn't as black and white as people have searched for you. There are a million ways it comes up with these suggestions. The barber one will probably link up via phone numbers and his page may say where he works so your number on their data base will then start suggesting people linke to the barber shop.

askalice · 13/04/2015 08:00

So it could just be something as simple as we like the same newspaper on Facebook?

cdtaylornats · 13/04/2015 08:12

With Linkdn you have to consider both sides, if someone was looking at your profile wouldn't you want to know?

Coconutty · 13/04/2015 08:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

askalice · 13/04/2015 08:17

I'm pretty convinced that if someone searches you then they come up on your People you may, and vice versa. But that's not the only way they do - surely. I have so many randoms on mine, from all over the world, I have tight security settings - I don't believe that all these people have been searching for me!

susiedaisy · 13/04/2015 08:28

I have also noticed what i purchased or searched for on Amazon will then pop up on the advert bars on FB

OllyBJolly · 13/04/2015 08:28

This is getting increasingly sinister and one of the reasons I might leave Facebook. I'm reluctant to, because it's a great way to keep in touch with my far flung family, and also to keep in with old school and university friends.

I've had the most bizarre people pop up on my "Who you might know" stream - and the only conclusion is that FB has accessed emails I've been sending up to 10 years ago. I'm not sure about LinkedIn and Facebook - I keep the two very separate i.e. LinkedIn for work, FB strictly personal and there doesn't seem to be any crossover. I do get business contacts popping up on my feed - some very bizarre. For example:

In 2005 I did a presentation for a company 500 miles from where I live and work. It was arranged through a third party and only one email was exchanged and it was an account no longer active, but archived in my outlook. The MD turned up on my stream. There is no other connection- he's a different generation (younger) so extremely unlikely we've liked or checked into the same things.

I really do think FB bots trawl your computer and collect contacts. Scary stuff.

tresfatigue · 13/04/2015 09:31

For me, when I search for people not in my friends list, it's usually ex boyfriends or old school chums I haven't seen for yonks. So not embarrassed to be on their "friends you may know" as they will go, oooh it's fatigue from years ago. And if they twig I've been curious it's not so weird. We did used to sit near each in English, or snog a lot or whatever the history there is. But a lot of my suggested friends are people I don't know, or don't have friends in common with. So could they be searching for me? Why? Must ask dp (who deactivated his account yonks ago) does he recognise anyone. (He is in my profile picture so they could be trying to nosey at him/used to know him?). Wee bit worrying. And as for ads that are specific to and reflect what else you have shopped online, there is a special programme that does this. It is intentional, so yes, the technology to access what else you view is there?

tresfatigue · 13/04/2015 09:36

Facebook say this:

m.facebook.com/help/562973647153813

But doesn't explain how they know to show products I searched online, while not logged in to any sites. Such as searching amazon while signed out off both it and facebook. Hmm Now I really think about it, I have read their ad faqs above aren't quite true before. Will be changing those settings too when I get a chance.

tresfatigue · 13/04/2015 09:41

Another quick google. Facebook uses cookies to do this.

"Facebook uses cookiesto show you targeted ads by placing cookies in your web browser or app. These cookies track all your browsing data and send it back to Facebook. Information will be sent to Facebook when someone accesses Facebook pageor accesses a third party website that has connection with Facebook." And most websites have a facebook connection or "share to facebook" feature. So you don't have to be logged in goes to delete all cookies. So I guess searching for people on say, google, could easily bring them up on facebook.

MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig · 13/04/2015 13:21

So all the people showing up in my 'people you may know' may have searched for me then? [confused}

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