Facebook

[badger]

A week ago I registered with Facebook just to look at one page I knew had been put up. As far as I know my account is completely Private, i.e. I put Friends Only everywhere and I have no Friends .

Just had an email from a friend in NZ asking me to join as her Friend so I can see her pics. etc. In the email (which was actually from her Facebook account) were 9 names with pics. of people they thought I might like to add as Friends. I know all these people in different ways, one is a work colleague from 9 years ago. As far as I know none of them would have wanted to make me a Friend as I didn't have an account.

How does this work? How does Facebook know who my friends/ acquaintances are? Can someone explain please

[dragonfly]

don't know if this is correct or not badger but i think that facebook pulls all the info you put in e.g. DOB, School etc, cross references it with others in its database, it pulls from your addresses of your acquaintences in your a email account, it looks to see which friends you have in common and so on and then uses this info to see who you might know - clever but scary!

[badger]

don't know if this is correct or not badger but i think that facebook pulls all the info you put in e.g. DOB, School etc, cross references it with others in its database, it pulls from your addresses of your acquaintences in your a email account, it looks to see which friends you have in common and so on and then uses this info to see who you might know - clever but scary!

Thanks dragonfly. I did enter my DOB but no school. email of course - had to. My email address is a btinternet one but I don't use webmail, only Outlook Express. I've just checked my account again and I see it gives Yahoomail to seach for friends but I don't keep any contacts there, only in OE. So presumably it can access that address book. I find that quite shocking. I know nothing is secure these days but this just proves it.

[Bobinovich]

Did the original friend who requested to add you know you'd joined FB? In which case she would only have to find you by typing in your e-mail address or name. Subsequently she may have links to the other people in her own friends network, and may have recommended them to you as people you may know.

I know for sure that my own Outlook Express address book was not added, otherwise I'd probably have a darned sight more people asking to add me! I did add some school & club info. when I first joined so had a number of friend requests I was surprised at, yet it all clicked together and there was no cloak-and-dagger stuff after all.

I'll agree it's a clever way of spidering your network.

[badger]

Did the original friend who requested to add you know you'd joined FB? In which case she would only have to find you by typing in your e-mail address or name. Subsequently she may have links to the other people in her own friends network, and may have recommended them to you as people you may know.

I know for sure that my own Outlook Express address book was not added, otherwise I'd probably have a darned sight more people asking to add me! I did add some school & club info. when I first joined so had a number of friend requests I was surprised at, yet it all clicked together and there was no cloak-and-dagger stuff after all.

I'll agree it's a clever way of spidering your network.

No she didn't. She's actually my sister-in-law and the same invitation has gone to my son so I imagine to all the family. Only one of the people she (they) suggested is known to her - they're a completely random collection and there is no way she could know any of the others, nor could her friends. Most of them couldn't possibly know each other even. I really think now it's a BT thing as having a btinternet address means I could use BTyahoo webmail, except that for my personal accounts I don't. I have occasionally had BT block emails from OE as spam even though I have my own spam filter so they must have access.

All very sinister.

[Phill]

There is an option in the sign-up bit, and every bloody time you log on, for it to check your email address book.
It may have been that you unwittingly checked the box during signup.

[badger]

The only option I can see when I go in is to Find Friends, which would check my email addresses, but I've never used this. I don't have any Friends and have all the Privacy settings as Friends only. In fact I have entered the absolute minimum and don't remember checking any box when I first registered.

They do keep suggesting two absolute strangers as Friends which I suppose is re-assuring or maybe they're getting desperate and think I must be lonely .

[Beat Bug]

Anyone can search for any name on FB, and then send a 'friend request'. I've done this to search for actual friends (and long-lost relatives) The request is then generated by FB and sent to you. The other party won't have access to your information, unless you accept their friend request.

[badger]

So selecting what I thought was the highest privacy in all options doesn't stop people finding you? Thanks for that - interesting.

[Beat Bug]

Try searching for other people with the same name as yourself. It's surprising how many come up, even for someone with an unusual name. I found dozens worldwide with my name!

[Niall Fernie]

If these people who have been suggested to you have been looking for you previously then when you do finally get round to setting up an account with facebook, the site will suggest these people as friends.

Your e-mail address may have been part of someone else's address book which they used to find their friends.

You may also be named in someones photo collection or mentioned in some other way.

It seems like facebook take every possibly piece of information and try to connect its users together.

[Tom Cornwall]

A week ago I registered with Facebook just to look at one page I knew had been put up. As far as I know my account is completely Private, i.e. I put Friends Only everywhere and I have no Friends .

I can't see the point of joining a "social networking" site and not wanting anyone to join with you or to know you're there...seems pointless to me

[badger]

Niall - thanks for the explanation. Still think it's all rather scary but I guess that's just the way things are these days.

Tom - If you look at my first post you'll see I joined just to look at a particular page. I don't want to be on Facebook but it was the only way I could see a group entry I needed to look at (won't bother explaining - too long and boring). As soon as I can I'll remove myself - no time for it.

[Tom Cornwall]

Niall - thanks for the explanation. Still think it's all rather scary but I guess that's just the way things are these days.

Tom - If you look at my first post you'll see I joined just to look at a particular page. I don't want to be on Facebook but it was the only way I could see a group entry I needed to look at (won't bother explaining - too long and boring). As soon as I can I'll remove myself - no time for it.

oh well...that's ok