Comments on: Facebook Friend Finder: What You May Not Know About Your Data

By: Kenya

Kenya — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:27:10 +0000

I use a different email address for Facebook than what most people have for me. I think it cuts down on a lot of friend suggestions. It's generally a good idea to use different email addresses for different types of services (i.e. I use different email accounts for LinkedIn (business), FaceBook (social) and PayPal (financial)). My profile is also hidden from certain people and you can't find it via searching the web (I turned that off).

By: Kenya

Kenya — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:27:10 +0000

By: peaches

peaches — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:11:13 +0000

So is there a way to stop this from happening? I just got a page suggestion from a company I did business with years ago (catalog). I don't like this! And some people find me who I'd rather not be friends with on FB (or even know I'm on it!).

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By: Anonymous

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By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 07:22:00 +0000

I am an information security professional living in Switzerland. I have recently deleted my personal account on Facebook (hint: using “Deactivate account” will cause Facebook to actually keep your data; if you want to “kill it dead”, you must use this link: http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account )

I have recently resubscribed with a fake name, because I need to find out something for a customer project. I have deliberately configured my privacy to maximum level, NOT provided ANY personal information of ANY kind, including NO e-mail contacts from NONE of my 5 different e-mail accounts.

And I have been aghast at finding that Facebook regularly suggests well-known friends to me; not only “friends’ friends” (I have contacted a half dozen trusted friends through this fake-name account), but also people whom I know, and who are completely disconnected from any other possible acquaintance of mine. People I know are only present in my Outlook contacts. I am trying to figure out where (and how!) Facebook snoops in order to find names of people I know. Anyone who might help me is welcome to e-mail me at toria@mclink.it

By: Kenya

Kenya — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 03:20:20 +0000

How could it access your address book if you did not give it access?

It is likely that people you know have already loaded their own address books which include you. You can test this by creating an account using an email address that no one knows. They shouldn't be able to suggest any friends for you in that case.

By: Lolli

Lolli — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 23:04:15 +0000

I just opened a facebook account. On the first page was the option to accept Friend Finder…I declined by clicking cancel. Nevertheless, immediately came up a list of spot on potential friends that could only be gotten if their program scanned my address book. Like your twitter friend, there was a person I have only a slight acquaintance with but exchanged some photos with. Are you sure Facebook is not invading my privacy?

By: Kenya

Kenya — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:33:14 +0000

It works the other way as well. If people you know load their address books and you're in it, Facebook will also suggest those people to you.

By: S

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:54:07 +0000

This is happening to me but I have never allowed facebook to access my hotmail contacts. So how have they managed to do this??

By: Kenya

Kenya — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:32:10 +0000

The former coworker is in my Yahoo email address book. However, with so many companies using Google Apps it is possible that one could give Facebook access to a company email account.

So many people are wondering how Facebook is suggesting people they know without realizing that Facebook stored their address book for future reference. I'm not sure those options were there when I did it but it's not readily apparent that Facebook going to store the addresses. It also makes you wonder what other services do when we give them access to our address books.

By: Mark A Dyson

Mark A Dyson — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:39:15 +0000

Thank you Miss Kenya for your post. I had suspected that Facebook intuitively suggested people on your e-mail list if were still shadowed if you imported g-mail, but not company e-mail. Perhaps the technology that is intuitive is intrusive.