How does Facebook know who I know? Freaky!

[IDoDis]

Whatever email address you used when signing up for facebook is where they collect their info from. If you don't want people friending you and vice versa, just open up a brand new email account and use that address. Then, don't make yourself visible in searches.

Facebook cannot scan your computer and all of your various web-based email addresses. They can only use the one you provide to them.

 

[KimR]

They also know who the people they think you know and the people they know you know know..

I know, but how do you know?

 

[LuvOrlando]

skip it

 

[Imzadi]

I know, but how do you know?

I think years from now, it will be uncovered that FB was always an info gathering operation of the FBI. "How do we get millions of people to voluntarily hand over personal information of themselves, their family and their friends without us having to go in and manually do research on each person? Hey! Just get them to click on some social website where, in a few simple clicks, they freely give us access to track them. They'll even post what they are doing, so we won't even have to move the satellite cameras (which cost $$$$ with each move,) to track them and take pictures. Better yet, get them to post updated pictures of themselves."

 

[Sparx]

They also look for people that you have multiple mutual friends with

I love the mutual friend feature.

However, there have been several times that I've had 150 mutual friends with someone but I have NEVER seen that person in my life!

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

I just signed up on Facebook with the bare minimum of info.... no pics... nothing else. I did it so that I can visit an alumni facebook page.

Well, when I activated my page, it gave me pics of a dozen or more people that I might know..... and I knew every single one of them! Two were from another town. Everytime I have checked my page, it gives me more people that I know.

I will admit that I was disturbed by this.

it has to be from email because when we signed up, it asked if I wanted to be "friends" with the guy from Owner's Locker.......

 

[luvthatduke]

Hi Folks, just getting a chance to reply.
I wanted to be clear on what happened to me
when I went to set up a Facebook account.
I clicked on a link to someone's FB page,
and didn't realize I had to be a member to read it.
So, I clicked on the link to join,
and I only gave my email address and did not even give my full name.
I only gave my partial first name but because this was
Facebook, where I am supposed to want friends & family
to find me, I entered my true last name.

I did not click, check, or offer any other information,
I only gave my name and email address if I recall correctly,
and then clicked to finalize my joining.

Immediately, many faces popped up on my screen,
and I didn't freak out right away because I recognized
my family and friends - however, like I said when I replied
to the OP originally, there were were many strangers there, too.
I then tried to decifer who these strangers were.
I recognized an email address from a recent Freecycle email exchange,
and that's when I checked my online address book with Gmail.
Every single face that FB gave me was listed in my address book,
and there was no other logical (to me) reason for the strangers to be listed.
I don't think all these other Freecyclers would have been looking me up?
Anyway, that is the only time I have been on FB as I have not gone back
because I felt they reached in somewhere and got a lot of information!

What I can't reconcile with all of the good information
many of you have shared with the OP, is that on Freecycle, etc.,
no one knows my last name - I only sign my first name and
they have my email address from either my reply to their
listing or from my own listing.

In addition, my email address only has my initials attached to it,
if you did not know my name there is no way you
can find it out unless I give it to you or you work
for my phone company, which is my server.

So, there you have it. Sorry for the long response, but I am still
wary of what happened to me with simply giving FB my
email address and partial name.

Imzadi: When I said I couldn't permanently delete my emails,
it's because Gmail (webmail online) has every single email
I have ever received, whether or not I deleted it, stored in
a folder they created called "All Mail." I don't know what's
going to happen if/when I have all of my assigned storage used up.

Blessings to all, sorry OP if I gave you any wrong info,
but I know what happened when I went to FB, and I did not like it.

 

[SelfEmployedDebtFree]

And once you have 500 friends on facebook Bill Gates will send you a check for $500. Then if all 500 of those friends invite just 10 more people you get a check for $5000. I know this is true! It happened to me!!!
Pass it on.

(yes, that was a joke)

All joking aside, I do not trust facebook. I've heard too many horror stories about it. And it scares me to think about how many people I am associated with. You won't find me there.
Years ago I searched my ebay user ID (which at the time was the same as my DIS ID) because I was getting threats from an idiot who thought I sold him something that was broken. (It wasn't)
I searched out my ebay user ID, which translated over to my old DIS ID, and then I googled a page that gave my 2 children's names and ages, and when we were going to be at Disney for Mousefest. I was pissed BAD. It was an open internet invitation for someone to come rob me blind. Complete with street address and dates of my trip. I contacted several places trying to get it removed. It may still be there. I didnt check again. I probably should.
Just a second ago I chose ONE of my many ebay ids (I change them regularly) and it brought up 5 pages of stuff. I havent used that ID in about 6 years.
There is just too much out there about me already for me to do something like facebook. I also agree with another person who said they predict someday we will discover it was started by the FBI. Maybe and maybe not, but I have seen them make references to it on shows like The First 48 and the other crime shows. They DO use it. I'm not planning to hold up any 7/11s, but if they can access it anyone can, and for any motive good or bad.

 

[SandrA9810]

i changed my email account to one that no one uses for me. i only use it to get on msn messenger. i was getting annoyed at the friend requests of people i no longer talked to but received an email from.
and because I'm friends with people from Disney, I'm always getting mutual requests of people I have no clue about. And I was never friends with any one from high school, I guess I should've never put in my high school...

 

[bicker]

Do keep in mind that what you're seeing is always affected not only by what information you've provided, but also by the information provided by other people who may know you. Regardless, rest assured that Facebook never searches your hard drive or your email account without your saying-so. EFF would have ripped into them viciously within 20 minutes of them doing that, if it were the case.

 

[Squirlz]

You can link contacts in the Adroid universe (along with others). A contact in your Facebook application, a contact in your gmail address book, and a contact in your phone list can all be linked so they are known to the OS to be the same contact. This is quite nice and keeps like contacts from being siloed in different applications. I believe this was rolled out with Android 2.0 (Eclair). The Incredible runs the 2.1 Eclair update.

I'm sure you can do things like that, but when you haven't done anything and your Facebook avatar comes up, that's rather curious isn't it?

 

[Imzadi]

Imzadi: When I said I couldn't permanently delete my emails,
it's because Gmail (webmail online) has every single email
I have ever received, whether or not I deleted it, stored in
a folder they created called "All Mail." I don't know what's
going to happen if/when I have all of my assigned storage used up.

That's strange. I have 3 Gmail accounts which I created quite a few years ago. None of my accounts have mail saved that I previously deleted in any of my "All Mail" folders.

This is what I do:
Check mark any emails I want deleted. Hit the delete key. Then it goes to the Trash folder - which saves stuff for 30 days in case you want to UNdelete something you accidentally deleted. You can manually delete the contents of your Trash folder any time you want by check marking each email or clicking on the button that says "Empty Trash Now."

If your Trash folder is not showing up on the left side of the screen, click on the blue link that will say something like "4 MORE." It will bring up a box in which you can click on your Trash Folder.

Empty your Trash folder and check your "All Mail" folder. Those deleted emails should be gone. This way, you can RE-use your MB space.

 

[luvthatduke]

That's strange. I have 3 Gmail accounts which I created quite a few years ago. None of my accounts have mail saved that I previously deleted in any of my "All Mail" folders.

This is what I do:
Check mark any emails I want deleted. Hit the delete key. Then it goes to the Trash folder - which saves stuff for 30 days in case you want to UNdelete something you accidentally deleted. You can manually delete the contents of your Trash folder any time you want by check marking each email or clicking on the button that says "Empty Trash Now."

If your Trash folder is not showing up on the left side of the screen, click on the blue link that will say something like "4 MORE." It will bring up a box in which you can click on your Trash Folder.

Empty your Trash folder and check your "All Mail" folder. Those deleted emails should be gone. This way, you can RE-use your MB space.

Thanks Imzadi.
I know about the Trash Folder, and I use it as
you do, but I think there's a disconnect between Microsoft Mail,
which I use to access my email directly on my PC, and Gmail.
For 2 years now, whatever I delete while reading my mail on my PC
does not get deleted permanently.
For instance, if anyone sent me an email tonight and I read it and
decided to delete it, I could then go find it in the online All Mail Folder.
I have actually used this to my advantage several times.
No matter that I 'Empty Deleted Items' Folder in Microsoft Mail
directly on my PC, after downloading and reading my mail,
and no matter that I check the boxes and hit delete online in Gmail,
and no matter that I 'Empty Trash Folder' frequently online,
all of the emails I have ever received, except for the ones I
physically trash online (including Spam) are there for my instant
retrieval online in the All Mail Folder.
As I started to say, I believe there is some type of glitch or
miscommunication between my PC's email program and Gmail.


OP, my apologies if I appear to have hijacked your thread!

 

[Mommee]

I'm sure you can do things like that, but when you haven't done anything and your Facebook avatar comes up, that's rather curious isn't it?

My phone (a blackberry with a facebook app installed on it) matches the phone number in my contacts with the phone number on the facebook profiles. I kind of like it, except for that guy who has an angry gorilla as his avatar