How does Facebook do it?

Tringa

Tringa

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Dave
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I have a Facebook account but I don't like its structure (or as I see it, lack of structure) and I only use it to play the odd simple game.

I have included the minimum of information. The name I use on Facebook is not part of my actual name and I have added no posts, no photos or no videos. I haven't made any friends requests and do not belong to or follow anyone or any groups and have not received or made any messages.

However, Facebook have suggested four people I might know.

One is a person I have never heard of but another has the same name as my wife, but is not her. A third is someone who has the same name as my wife's maiden name and the fourth is someone who has the same name as someone I went to school with but again is not the person I knew.

Its all a bit spooky.

Dave
 
Do you use the App on your phone? Perhaps it can see your contacts.

Are the suggested people, friends of your friends? Like if you had your Wife as a friend, you may end up with suggested friends that she is also friends with.

Are you part of any networks or groups within facebook?
 
I'm not on Farcebook but I keep getting emails listing people I could befriend if I was. Thing is the people on the list are all guys I know/know of, albeit some of them are from other activities years ago.
How have they picked that up?
Edit......how have they got my email address?
 
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I suspect a mixture of cookie sharing, data mining from your personal computer and clever algorithms used to parse other information available about you. I recently re-started using facebook under a pseudonym to stay in contact with 3 or 4 individuals only - it started suggesting I should become friends with the chap who fitted our kitchen, with whom I have had email contact only on the computer.
 
Don't forget it works the other way too... people that Facebook suggests may be people who have your email address in their address book which they have shared (knowingly or unknowingly) with Facebook.
 
I don't access Facebook from a 'phone and I'm not a member of any groups or networks on Facebook and I have no friends there either. I did set up a gmail email when I joined Facebook but it purpose was only to allow me to get a Facebook account and I have never used this email address for anything.

Fair points Toni and Eloise. Although the email address I give to everyone is not the gmail one, it has a similar format to the gmail one.

Dave
 
On a serious note...
I have a few mates who are on FB. I've no idea if my family are on it - the topic has never been raised. On the odd occasion that I look at my mates pages all I see is photos of the meal they're having in a pub somewhere and pictures of "my beautiful (I.E pug ugly) grandkids". Apart from inane mindless prattle is there any real need for/use of FB? If I want to talk to someone I'll phone/text/email. What use is FB other than to fill a gap that never seemed to exist?
 
mickledore said:
On a serious note...
I have a few mates who are on FB. I've no idea if my family are on it - the topic has never been raised. On the odd occasion that I look at my mates pages all I see is photos of the meal they're having in a pub somewhere and pictures of "my beautiful (I.E pug ugly) grandkids". Apart from inane mindless prattle is there any real need for/use of FB? If I want to talk to someone I'll phone/text/email. What use is FB other than to fill a gap that never seemed to exist?
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Very much agree. As far as I know all email clients allow you to create groups so with a click you can send the same message/photos/links to a number of folks, if that is necessary, and, as you say, if you need to communicate with a single person there are other, arguably, easier and IMO better ways.

I can see businesses using Facebook as a way of getting to a lot of people but for individuals I don't get it (though that is probably my lack of understanding).

It seems to be a way of allowing individuals to send things to friends that if they used email to do it, they would pretty quickly get this response (its an old one but still relevant to some of the stuff out there) -
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCSA7kKNu2Y
.

Dave
 
On a another serious note I was able to reconnect with a friend who I had lost contact with and had no success finding in other ways.
 
In contrast to the OP I get almost daily emails from LinkedIn and Facebook suggesting people I "may know" and I do know most of them. I'm sure it's because LinkedIn etc are mining other people's address books as I never share mine.
 
mickledore said:
Apart from inane mindless prattle is there any real need for/use of FB?
Click to expand...

I'm not a big fan of Facebook and don't use it much, the main reason I use it though is because a couple of clubs I am in have facebook groups which are handy for sharing information about events etc. and also for sharing photos and the like after events.
 
mickledore said:
Apart from inane mindless prattle is there any real need for/use of FB? If I want to talk to someone I'll phone/text/email. What use is FB other than to fill a gap that never seemed to exist?
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I find that FB can be great for keeping in touch with people who I don't see as often as I used to. For example, people I used to be at college with, people I used to work with, people I used to live with or near. In those sorts of circumstances I would have been in contact with these people virtually every day. But we've left college, left those jobs, moved houses, and we see one another maybe a few times a year (at best) rather than virtually every day.

That does create a gap, although before FB it probably wasn't recognised or articulated because there was nothing that could realistically be done about it. I'm not going to phone or write to people to tell them specifically that I've pranged the car, or that the cat is ill, or that I'm going to the Lake District. They're not going to phone or write to me specifically to tell me that they've got a new job, or their daughter has got a place in the county orchestra, or the neighbour accidentally burnt down their shed. These are trivia, really, but they're the sorts of trivia on which friendships are based, the sorts of trivia that allow you to see the world through another person's eyes.

And with FB this stream of frequent but low-level contact can be reinstated. It's almost as if they were still there every day, and that helps massively to maintain friendships. Of course it depends on you and your friends posting things which are "interesting", and not all will. But it can work.

I'm sure different people get different things out of FB. But that's what it does for me, and I thing it's very useful. YMMV.
 
Facebook are famous for invading privacy.
They have in the past (not sure if they still do) tracked people as they've browsed the web who aren't even facebook members. They've done this using 'share on facebook' and 'like' widgets they encourage web masters to paste all over their websites.

Also, if you've given FB any information, they will no doubt cross reference it with information other people hold about you. I suspect if I installed the Facebook app on my phone and I also have your telephone number in my contacts, FB will make the connection.
 
Facebook also own Instagram and WhatsApp and share details between those apps.
 
mickledore said:
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That's very strange its not locked or been moved its sitting there in OoF page #2 just up from the bottom :thinking:
 
Eloise said:
Don't forget it works the other way too... people that Facebook suggests may be people who have your email address in their address book which they have shared (knowingly or unknowingly) with Facebook.
Click to expand...

this, its not just about you.
 
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