Facebook (People You May Know)

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jayfx

Well-Known Member
Joined
17 Jul 2009
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1,900
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Not really here
How does Facebook find the 'people I may know'?

I understand I may know friends of friends but I have 2 separate FB accounts. I keep these 2 accounts very separate too.
One account is for friends and family, the other account for people I met overseas. It's not as dodgy as it sounds but I do keep my second account hidden and there is not one person that is on both accounts.
However, recently I have been sent friend recommendations from Facebook to my second (overseas) account. And these are people from home, that I know in my personal life. Some are friends on my main FB account and some are not. But how does Facebook know that I know these people?
One recommendation is my ex boss that I cannot stand. I have never had her email or her Facebook, and nobody on this FB account is friends with her or even knows her. But somehow Facebook knows that I know her. How, how, how????
It all seems suspicious to me!
 
jayfx said:
How does Facebook find the 'people I may know'?

I understand I may know friends of friends but I have 2 separate FB accounts. I keep these 2 accounts very separate too.
One account is for friends and family, the other account for people I met overseas. It's not as dodgy as it sounds but I do keep my second account hidden and there is not one person that is on both accounts.
However, recently I have been sent friend recommendations from Facebook to my second (overseas) account. And these are people from home, that I know in my personal life. Some are friends on my main FB account and some are not. But how does Facebook know that I know these people?
One recommendation is my ex boss that I cannot stand. I have never had her email or her Facebook, and nobody on this FB account is friends with her or even knows her. But somehow Facebook knows that I know her. How, how, how????
It all seems suspicious to me!
Click to expand...
Get a life
 
????????

I want to know how Facebook discovers the people who you know in real life or who know you.

I tried the following to see if Facebook can still discover my acquaintances in real life and suggest them to me as a friend.

I connected using a VPN (an anonymous VPN, not one of those free VPN services). I have confirmed that it does not leak my actual IP address.
I cleared the cookies in my browser (specific to sites like Facebook, Google, and Yahoo) and started a fresh instance of Browsing Session. Anyway, cookies specific to Facebook only should matter, and I cleared them all.
I registered an email account with an email service provider who does not require a mobile number for registration. I used an email ID name which had no resemblance to my real name. I did not mention anything related to my geographical location while registering the email address. Please note that this was a fresh email address, and I have never used it to send an email or receive an email.
Now, I registered on Facebook, using a name which does not resemble my real name in any way.
However, Facebook requires phone number verification before you complete registration on Facebook. This is the only place where I specified my real phone number to receive their security code.

Once, I completed the verification. The moment I logged in, I could see Facebook giving me a list of suggestions of people I may know. It was surprising indeed, since this list was extremely accurate. It included people I knew in the past as well my current acquaintances. It makes me rather suspicious.

The only way I see that Facebook was able to identify the people who may know me or I may know them was using my phone number. So my assumption is:

They appear to have a deal with the telecommunication providers in different countries. Once you disclose your phone number, it looks like they get access to the entire list of phone numbers with whom you have corresponded in the past. Then, they do a second level lookup to identify the Facebook profiles of those corresponding phone numbers.
Also, interestingly, there are some people with whom I may not have ever corresponded with on phone. But of course, Facebook can find them through other people I know and suggest them to me.

Am I correct that Facebook was able to do all the correlation of people I know in real life using my phone number?

It would be interesting to see whether they could still correlate it if I use another phone number.
Click to expand...

Well that's ONE explanation.

Another one that I like better is simply that they have all their users' contact lists, thanks to their mobile application which no doubt reads everything and sends it back to their headquarters.

All they have to do after you register with your real phone number is look through all those contact lists, and find the people who possess your number.

This idea that they may have arrangements with telecom providers seems a little far-fetched to me, in great part because it is simply illegal in many countries to disclose phone records to anyone without a court order.
Click to expand...

<a class="postlink" href="http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/61412/anonymity-on-facebook-how-do-they-suggest-people-i-should-know" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://security.stackexchange.com/quest ... hould-know</a>
 
Proelia said:
jayfx said:
How does Facebook find the 'people I may know'?

I understand I may know friends of friends but I have 2 separate FB accounts. I keep these 2 accounts very separate too.
One account is for friends and family, the other account for people I met overseas. It's not as dodgy as it sounds but I do keep my second account hidden and there is not one person that is on both accounts.
However, recently I have been sent friend recommendations from Facebook to my second (overseas) account. And these are people from home, that I know in my personal life. Some are friends on my main FB account and some are not. But how does Facebook know that I know these people?
One recommendation is my ex boss that I cannot stand. I have never had her email or her Facebook, and nobody on this FB account is friends with her or even knows her. But somehow Facebook knows that I know her. How, how, how????
It all seems suspicious to me!
Click to expand...
Get a life
Click to expand...

Care to elaborate?
Are you suggesting Facebook is for people without real life and that I should delete it?
Or are you saying that, if I wish to query something, then I shouldn't?
Maybe floating around forums, heckling posts would be much more fulfilling in life. Thanks for your valuable input.
 
Had a similar issue myself. I've inadvertently sent LinkedIn invites to all and sundry, including some I would never dream of inviting!
 
mindmyp's_n_q's said:
????????

I want to know how Facebook discovers the people who you know in real life or who know you.

I tried the following to see if Facebook can still discover my acquaintances in real life and suggest them to me as a friend.

I connected using a VPN (an anonymous VPN, not one of those free VPN services). I have confirmed that it does not leak my actual IP address.
I cleared the cookies in my browser (specific to sites like Facebook, Google, and Yahoo) and started a fresh instance of Browsing Session. Anyway, cookies specific to Facebook only should matter, and I cleared them all.
I registered an email account with an email service provider who does not require a mobile number for registration. I used an email ID name which had no resemblance to my real name. I did not mention anything related to my geographical location while registering the email address. Please note that this was a fresh email address, and I have never used it to send an email or receive an email.
Now, I registered on Facebook, using a name which does not resemble my real name in any way.
However, Facebook requires phone number verification before you complete registration on Facebook. This is the only place where I specified my real phone number to receive their security code.

Thanks a lot for that.
Maybe it is threw my phone number but still seems odd, as people I call all of the time aren't recommended, yet someone that I called a handful of times months ago is. But I guess it does offer a possibility. Seems a lot of trouble to go to just help people find FB friends too. But I do appreciate the link, thanks.

Once, I completed the verification. The moment I logged in, I could see Facebook giving me a list of suggestions of people I may know. It was surprising indeed, since this list was extremely accurate. It included people I knew in the past as well my current acquaintances. It makes me rather suspicious.

The only way I see that Facebook was able to identify the people who may know me or I may know them was using my phone number. So my assumption is:

They appear to have a deal with the telecommunication providers in different countries. Once you disclose your phone number, it looks like they get access to the entire list of phone numbers with whom you have corresponded in the past. Then, they do a second level lookup to identify the Facebook profiles of those corresponding phone numbers.
Also, interestingly, there are some people with whom I may not have ever corresponded with on phone. But of course, Facebook can find them through other people I know and suggest them to me.

Am I correct that Facebook was able to do all the correlation of people I know in real life using my phone number?

It would be interesting to see whether they could still correlate it if I use another phone number.
Click to expand...

Well that's ONE explanation.

Another one that I like better is simply that they have all their users' contact lists, thanks to their mobile application which no doubt reads everything and sends it back to their headquarters.

All they have to do after you register with your real phone number is look through all those contact lists, and find the people who possess your number.

This idea that they may have arrangements with telecom providers seems a little far-fetched to me, in great part because it is simply illegal in many countries to disclose phone records to anyone without a court order.
Click to expand...

<a class="postlink" href="http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/61412/anonymity-on-facebook-how-do-they-suggest-people-i-should-know" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://security.stackexchange.com/quest ... hould-know</a>
Click to expand...
 
plongo said:
Had a similar issue myself. I've inadvertently sent LinkedIn invites to all and sundry, including some I would never dream of inviting!
Click to expand...

Cheers mate.

I'll remember that.
 
plongo said:
present company...and all that
Click to expand...

Just crossing you of my Xmas Card list and cancelling your invitation to the launch of my new book "Exciting TUPE Transfers I have Known".

Admittedly it's a short book.
 
Did you search for any of those people on your second account? Also do you have any info like the school you go, the company you work for, groups your part of that would be region specific etc?
 
jayfx said:
How does Facebook find the 'people I may know'?

I understand I may know friends of friends but I have 2 separate FB accounts. I keep these 2 accounts very separate too.
One account is for friends and family, the other account for people I met overseas. It's not as dodgy as it sounds but I do keep my second account hidden and there is not one person that is on both accounts.
However, recently I have been sent friend recommendations from Facebook to my second (overseas) account. And these are people from home, that I know in my personal life. Some are friends on my main FB account and some are not. But how does Facebook know that I know these people?
One recommendation is my ex boss that I cannot stand. I have never had her email or her Facebook, and nobody on this FB account is friends with her or even knows her. But somehow Facebook knows that I know her. How, how, how????
It all seems suspicious to me!
Click to expand...
My mate works for an advertising company. Nothing is safe on the internet. They have complex algorithms to know what you like and who you know. They use cookies and all that technical stuff from websites. Basically unless you clear you cache, cookies, history and other stuff on a regular basis, people have a lot of info on you.

It's slightly different to what you have asked, but all the adds you see on facebook are a result of what these 'algorithms' have deemed you may be interested in. When you 'google' something, you will get a different set of results to someone else based on what advertises think you will like. My mate hates his job because he realises how fake the world is and how everything you read/hear on the internet is based solely on getting you to buy something or have a certain point of view.
 
They are watching you........

illuminati.jpg


alog9z.jpg
 
I noticed that on Linked In (which I barely use). The suggested contacts list was quite literally people from all walks of life who I'd known. People from college, previous employments (some I hadn't listed on Linked In), people from school and all sorts.

Meh, whatever.
 
foetus said:
jayfx said:
How does Facebook find the 'people I may know'?

I understand I may know friends of friends but I have 2 separate FB accounts. I keep these 2 accounts very separate too.
One account is for friends and family, the other account for people I met overseas. It's not as dodgy as it sounds but I do keep my second account hidden and there is not one person that is on both accounts.
However, recently I have been sent friend recommendations from Facebook to my second (overseas) account. And these are people from home, that I know in my personal life. Some are friends on my main FB account and some are not. But how does Facebook know that I know these people?
One recommendation is my ex boss that I cannot stand. I have never had her email or her Facebook, and nobody on this FB account is friends with her or even knows her. But somehow Facebook knows that I know her. How, how, how????
It all seems suspicious to me!
Click to expand...
My mate works for an advertising company. Nothing is safe on the internet. They have complex algorithms to know what you like and who you know. They use cookies and all that technical stuff from websites. Basically unless you clear you cache, cookies, history and other stuff on a regular basis, people have a lot of info on you.

It's slightly different to what you have asked, but all the adds you see on facebook are a result of what these 'algorithms' have deemed you may be interested in. When you 'google' something, you will get a different set of results to someone else based on what advertises think you will like. My mate hates his job because he realises how fake the world is and how everything you read/hear on the internet is based solely on getting you to buy something or have a certain point of view.
Click to expand...

I have decided to embrace it

and I love it

:)
 
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