Does Facebook Read Your Contacts and Suggest Friends
Social Media
Here's How Facebook Knows Who You Meet In Real Life
It may seem similar Marking Zuckerburg is personally tracking your every movement — but there'southward another explanation for those creepy friend requests you lot're getting
Photo Illustration: Diana Quach
A couple months ago a friend and I went to Colombia for vacation. While we were at the beach ane day, we met a grouping of people and spent several hours hanging out with them. Nosotros never exchanged phone numbers or email addresses, we didn't share much information about ourselves other than our names and where we lived, and we didn't connect on social media. I didn't fifty-fifty have my phone on me at the time. However, when I got back to New York and checked Facebook, I saw that 2 of the people we met popped upwards in my "People Yous May Know" recommendations. Weird, I thought. Really, it's creepy. Is Facebook tracking my every step?
Facebook's brand is based on the customs it creates, and its mission is to connect everybody in the globe. And so it only makes sense that the platform frequently suggests new friends for users to add to their networks. Only in the past, the company'due south suggestions for connecting users accept raised some eyebrows.
For case, have the story about a psychiatrist who claimed her patients were popping up on her list of suggested friends (and on each other's lists) after visiting her office, which is obviously problematic for medical privacy reasons. The psychiatrist is far from the merely Facebook user to discover mysterious friend suggestions — for years there have been stories of people who go on dates, attend parties or browse through a book store but to see people they interacted with in person pop up in their Facebook at a after date. None of these connections are coincidences, of course. So how does it happen?
Just how the company goes about identifying potential new connections — especially when the users have no obvious digital connexion to ane another — isn't always clear. The first possible reason, and almost likely, for someone to appear in your "People You May Know" list is that 1 of yous searched for the other, according to Facebook. So if Angel and Angie (ii random strangers) go along a blind date and Angel searches Facebook for Angie's profile, but doesn't add her as a friend, Facebook will advise both add each other. Information technology merely takes ane person to trigger the algorithm.
Another possible explanation is that the two parties shared some blazon of digital information such as electronic mail or telephone numbers, since most people apply either to open a profile. So if you lot share your contacts with either Facebook or Messenger, someone you recently added to your contacts will exist suggested first over someone you've had on your phone for years.
A Facebook spokesperson said the company does not meet who users text, call or e-mail, therefore the algorithm wouldn't be able to brand friend suggestions based on that. Nonetheless, if you're using email programs on your phone such as Gmail, yous are saving email addresses to your phone and Facebook will exist able to see them — again, but if you're sharing your contacts with Facebook apps.
There is as well a theory that Facebook tracks users' spider web activity, only in a statement Facebook debunked information technology. Facebook apps use web cookies for targeting ads, but not for recommending new friends, a spokesperson said. Facebook as well claims it no longer tracks its users with location data to rank friend suggestions based on where they alive or piece of work. The company said location tracking was but a brief test information technology ran concluding year at a very small-scale urban center-wide scale.
Facebook said that its friend recommendations are based on variety of factors, which includes common friends, work and didactics data, groups you're role of, and any digital information stored on your phone that is shared with Facebook. Other than that, Facebook deems all other connections coincidences.
Other social media platforms such every bit Twitter and Tumblr aren't usually scrutinized about follow suggestions because they seem to exist based on interests and mutual friends, rather than just random people you've met literally ten minutes agone. Facebook, however, is not the only platform that has received criticism for the questionable ways it suggests new contacts. LinkedIn recently had to consequence an apology considering it pushed a new update that told iPhone users it would turn on their Bluetooth in social club to share data with people nearby and "connect" them even when not using the app, if they didn't opt out.
The update has since been "fixed" and LinkedIn apologized for confusing users, since the linguistic communication used in the update did not specify which information was being shared and nether what conditions. If all of this still seems freaky to you, shutting off Facebook's access to your contacts is quite easy. All you take to exercise is go into your smartphone'south settings, look for your apps section, tap on Facebook and disable the "Contacts" admission.
Experts likewise recommend that people disable Facebook from using location information, which tin also be toggled under the same Settings bill of fare. Another piece of advice for those who are concerned with privacy is logging off from Facebook whenever going to medical offices, big events, or even theme parks like Disney Land. But perhaps the most failsafe approach is just to uninstall the Facebook app from your phone and wait to see all your notifications from your desktop estimator when you lot become dwelling house.
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Source: https://www.vocativ.com/425482/facebook-tracking-friend-requests/index.html
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