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Facebook is being creepy
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| SYSTEM-J |
I'm used to tenuous "People You May Know" from Facebook. But I just glanced at it and there was a suggestion with no mutual friends, but a vaguely familiar name. I clicked on it and it turns out to be some girl I had a very brief fling with almost three years ago. Now, how the has Facebook connected us?
1. No mutual friends, networks, groups, anything connecting our accounts.
2. We've never been friends on Facebook or any other social media.
3. Her number was only ever saved in a prehistoric phone from 2002 I was using at the time because my actual phone had been stolen. The number was deleted from my SIM card years ago.
The only thing I remember doing was a vague bit of Internet perving where I Googled her name and found a Twitter account, but my laptop has been reformatted since then and it's not even as though my Google account is connected to my Facebook account in any way. Is this sheer coincidence or evidence of the mind-blowing extent to which everything on the Internet is cross-referenced and synchronised? |
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| Trance-M |
| Coincidence probably. If it was someone at the other side of the world maybe it wouldn't be. |
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| Sushipunk |
| Whenever you're logged into your Facebook account, they will track every site you visit. Assuming that you were logged into Facebook at the time, you finding her Twitter account could easily have been enough for them to connect you, especially if her Twitter account is linked to her Facebook. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
Yes, you're probably right Stu. I'd love to say I've slept with so many girls that a random suggestion would inevitably be a former conquest, but sadly that's a long way from the truth.
I know it's all algorithms and a human eye probably never looks at any of the accrued data, but it is still slightly eerie to witness a website patiently logging everything you do and then bringing it back up again years later when you'd practically forgotten about it yourself. |
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| Woony |
| If you aren't already, you should use a browser addon like ghostery or disconnect to keep third party cookies from tracking you, by the way. It's not just Facebook, these are incredibly common now, since regular internet ad rates keep plummeting. |
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| Sushipunk |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
Yes, you're probably right Stu. I'd love to say I've slept with so many girls that a random suggestion would inevitably be a former conquest, but sadly that's a long way from the truth.
I know it's all algorithms and a human eye probably never looks at any of the accrued data, but it is still slightly eerie to witness a website patiently logging everything you do and then bringing it back up again years later when you'd practically forgotten about it yourself. |
I suppose the other possibility is that she's been looking you up :p |
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| Silky Johnson |
| in Facebook. |
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| Mr.Mystery |
| quote: | Originally posted by Silky Johnson
in Facebook. |
Is that the one they advertise on porn sites? |
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| Jon_Snow |
| Under setting you have to uncheck creep mode |
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| Big Worm |
| Not sure about creepy, more like this is what they do. It's what drives FaceBook. Totally disturbing. Can't wait to get the hell off Facebook. |
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| Lira |
I'll be the sceptic and say it was most likely a statistical fluke.
If your experience has been anything like mine, Facebook's friend suggestion algorithm is really weird: It apparently suggests friends at random now, unlike the early days when it would seek those users you share most mutual friends with. Having given up on this approach (maybe the programmers assume you don't need any help meeting people you share so many friends with), it trawls people's profiles for data, often with bizarre results.
In my case, it often picks strangers from cities my foreign friends live. Mind you, they don't have to share any mutual friends (often they do share one though). For whatever reason, Facebook really wants me to befriend people in Thailand, which makes me wonder what the system thinks I do in my holidays.
If your friends are mostly English, and specially from your area, it's just a matter of time until people you've met show up on the list. Whether or not you had a fling with them is probably irrelevant. I'm sure there are way more false positives than you've managed to keep track of.
Either that or Skynet wants you to procreate. You know she fancies already, so it will only make Skynet's work easier. |
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