Dawn gave us some examples of friends that Facebook is suggesting for her:
A couple of examples of people facebook has suggested to me (again, none of the addresses were imported to facebook) - a client (work email stored on my outlook contacts, but that is it, no mutual friends or common networks), the current wife of an ex-boyfriend, a former co-worker from 10+ years ago (again no current email anywhere), my now deceased mother-in-law (this one puzzles me less, but she died two years ago, why is she coming up now??)
Freaky. So what's going on here? Reader Megan turned up this blog post, where Tony Ruscoe formulated a theory about why this is happening, then tested it with his own Gmail contacts list, Facebook account, and some accomplices. What did they discover? Well, when you import your e-mail contacts and choose to skip over and not add certain people to your friends list, Facebook doesn't forget. Facebook also forms relationships based on other people's imported contact lists, meaning that even if you've never imported your own lists, Facebook sees your address in other people's contact lists and figures out relationships based on that.
How can you get Facebook to cut it out? You can start by removing any stored contact lists that Facebook has for you. If you're logged in to Facebook, do that at this link. If you want to take it a step further, change your privacy settings so you're not visible in search results.
How Facebook Uses Your "Skipped" Webmail Contacts [Blogoscoped]
Remove Contacts Imported using the Friend Finder [Facebook]
(Photo: avlxyz)
]]>Also, ex's are meant to , in theory, drop off of the face of the earth. Do I need to see a new photo of an ex with their new spouse, a year or so after a split ? Even if just to "x" them out? Hell no.
Does FB not realize that people are capable of finding their own damn "friends" ?
]]>or follow the steps for deleting old contact list imports.
or hell - clean out your contact lists period.
]]>Yet somehow, the guy who sold me my potting wheel has shown up in my suggestions list. We don't have any mutual FB friends. He could be a friend of a friend of a friend, but if that's the case, why would it suggest the third-degree guy rather than the second-degree guy?
Annoyed now.
]]>I got a friend suggestion for someone I bought soccer tickets from on Craigslist two years ago. But I NEVER set it up to import any of my email contacts (or peruse my email for people not listed in my address book).
]]>And the "What ____ are you?" quizzes. Can't forget those.
Cheers!
]]>Weird.
Cheers!
]]>@b.k.:
After you let me join, I'll treat you like you're dead to me! You could fund the site by selling non-Hallmark like cards, stuff with messages like FU & hope you get rectal cancer.
Now, I keep getting suggestions for people I have no contacts in common with and whom I've never heard of (or wish I never had). That is the creepy change that has inspired a mass of "wtf" responses...
]]>I haven't even been doing apps.
]]>@Radi0logy: LOL! That is all.
]]>@JGKojak: To me, it just sounds like Facebook is actually doing the social networking it claims to do in the first place. If users didn't want it in the first place, they should have used a blog or suchlike, not a freaking social networking site.
]]>Because you enjoyed:
Prison Break: Season 2
I got an invite from a relative yesterday, and we're both already on facebook. I wonder if there was some sort of error going on yesterday.
]]>x-ing the person from the suggested friends list does not at all mean that they will never show up again. Believe me, there are many people I have x'ed over and over.
]]>As for all the folks who are being nasty and saying why did you sign up to begin with... if I WANTED to invite all those people, I would have already. The "skip" button means DON'T email them please! Facebook needs to work that out!
]]>@catastrophegirl - brand new homeowner:
Go into your settings and change it so that your profile is not viewable in searches or suggestions.
And yeah, you give up some privacy on Facebook but to me it is TOTALLY WORTH IT. I have an amazing network of friends and family that I can interact with even though we're spread across the country, AND I have a professional network of other graduate students and we support one another through school.
Seriously, they aren't forcing me to give my info to others, so I'm not worried about it.
]]>Some of the people on the list did not do the same...because they are popping up all over my Friend Suggestion page. They must have run through their contacts and now, I am getting suggestions from them despite not uploading them via the contact finder. There were so many of them that they have over taken the suggestion page.
]]>Great timing on this post. This explains a very unusual "friend suggestion" I noticed today.
]]>I try to make one this week
]]>I like it.
Expanded suggestions are a good idea. If I don't like the person, I can just click the 'x' and they are gone.
]]>@mayrc87: Probably phishing attempts as suggested above. After the criminals run out of bank names to email to your inbox, they start on social networking sites...
]]>For example, I grabbed this from Netflix once.
]]>Considering I'm in a university network, I get lots of random "You and blah both went to the university of ..." showing up on my home page. I don't find it very effective, since my alma mater is not a small school.
]]>@frodoUnderhill:
I had the same thing happen to me yesterday. It was a Reminder that Lynn had invited Lynn to be a friend. I thought maybe I had done a test when I first signed up to see what an invite looked like and the reminder cycle had just kicked in.
Hey it's not like you are friends w/ them they are suggesting... so stop freaking out...
]]>Just the other day I had a suggestion of one of my 'online friends' who had just joined.
I did briefly wonder why/how it showed her as a suggestion, but just assumed it was because I had previously searched using her e-mail address to see if she had a profile (at the time she did not).
Seeing as I did/have NOT allowed Facebook to automatically import contacts, the only thing I could come up with is that it is somehow keeping track of e-mail searches you've performed in the past.
]]>@mayrc87:
Those are likely spam or phishing attempts, and may not even be from Facebook. Its popular enough that many spamers/phishers are spoofing it. Real invites from Facebook contain a link to unsubscribe in the fine print at the bottom.
]]>If you like what Facebook does: Keep using it! It's free and all your friends are on it! Hurray!
If you don't like what Facebook does: DO NOT SIGN UP. Or if you're already signed up cancel and delete your account. Nobody has a gun to your head telling you to use the website.
]]>My gmail is for non-friends and business only, so the suggestions were random: my old pilates teacher, my fellow volunteers from a project in 2005, and a few old blind dates.
About a day later, a facebook blog reported the issue, and all those random suggestions disappeared for a few days, only to return yesterday. So facebook is aware of what's happening and choosing to keep the email suggestions.
]]>It isn't difficult.
]]>In fact, the next time I'm on the toilet, I'm going to announce it on Facebook.
]]>@Pibbs: I'd never give a business who wants me to stop talking about something my business. What the hell kind of business does that?
]]>Don't sign up for facebook?
]]>Some friends keep asking me if I am on it, and I have to keep telling them that I never will, because of these issues.
Facebook will die in 2 years like MySpace did (recent massive layoff) when something new comes along.
]]>Took the words right off my keyboard.
]]>Sheesh, people. What did you expect? They have access to a gold mine of data (your email contact list) and they won't take advantage of it?
]]>You can start by removing any stored contact lists that Facebook has for you. If you're logged in to Facebook, do that at this link. If you want to take it a step further, change your privacy settings so you're not visible in search results.
Seriously, if the emails about this all just started coming in to Consumerist, then Facebook's technology must have recently changed. If this kind of thing is really bothering someone, they probably shouldn't be using Facebook in the first place. If, however, they're just kinda going WTF? That's odd and sharing this development for entertainment purposes, I guess I can consider myself entertained. Or not. I don't use Facebook so it's all anecdotal for me.
]]>Don't you have to give Facebook your email password for that?
Seems crazy to me.
]]>They're watching... always watching...
Am I the only one who says: what the hell did you expect? You signed up for a SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE.
Get over it or don't sign up.
]]>Ranks right up there with this one, which I should get put onto a shirt someday. That picture looks old, but last time I was there, the sign was up, and I did love it so.
]]>This morning Facebook suggested a new friend. The name sounded familiar and I couldn't quite place it. I clicked and saw that we had no friends in common and that's weird. In the past, facebook only suggested friends of friends you weren't already friends with (does that makes sense?).
Turns out the new friend was an old fling. How facebook found her, I dunno.
]]>They recently recommended a friend to me; the two of us have no mutual friends, and I've never imported my e-mail contacts. I concluded that he must have imported his e-mail contacts, and they notified me because of that. It's pretty obvious, really.
]]>It also bases a lot of them on friends you have defriended. You would think that the software would be up to date enough not to base your people you may know on deleted info.
]]>@Pibbs: I just want to know where that is. I want to go there and chill.
]]>"Privacy-minded Facebook user" is an oxymoron...
]]>