# iPhone/WhatsApp/Facebook – how did this person find my name? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 10, 2017, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-whatsapp-facebook-how-did-this-person-find-my-name/776812 "2017-01-10T14:32:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2017, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-whatsapp-facebook-how-did-this-person-find-my-name/776812/1 "2017-01-10T14:32:44Z")
About 6 weeks ago I communicated with someone who had advertised some antiques online. As in my past experience some of these sellers can be a bit iffy, I make a point never to give my name at the initial stage. So I had a couple of exchanges with this person by phone and text (with my iPhone 4S), and in the end decided not to pursue the purchase of the item. I figured that was the end of it. So I was surprised a few weeks later to get a happy new year message sent to my WhatsApp account. I wondered how he got my number in WhatsApp, but then figured that maybe my contact was transferred directly to WhatsApp from his regular contact list. But what really shocked me was that last week I received a friend request from him, to my Facebook account _ **in my name** _. How the heck did this guy get my name? I don’t think he is a stalker or anything, but it kind of freaked me out. Can anyone explain to me how this guy got my IRL name from an anonymous cell phone number? Is there a way I can prevent this from happening again? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2017, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-whatsapp-facebook-how-did-this-person-find-my-name/776812/2 "2017-01-10T15:00:21Z")
Have you used the cell number for any online ads? I have searched phone numbers and found the person’s name linked to the number in an ad, or “contact me” page from a website. If you search your number right now, are there any results linking your name and number? ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2017, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-whatsapp-facebook-how-did-this-person-find-my-name/776812/3 "2017-01-10T15:03:57Z")
WhatsApp is owned by Facebook. Looks like WhatsApp shares info with Facebook to “improve advertising.” Also it seems that there’s no retroactive way to opt out of this sharing. Or maybe there is, you’ll have to dig deeper. But, as to “how” the person did it, Facebook served it up for him. ---
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2017, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-whatsapp-facebook-how-did-this-person-find-my-name/776812/4 "2017-01-10T16:06:45Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Have you used the cell number for any online ads? I have searched phone numbers and found the person’s name linked to the number in an ad, or “contact me” page from a website. > > If you search your number right now, are there any results linking your name and number? I thought of that too, and searched on my mobile number. But nothing came up. ---
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2017, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-whatsapp-facebook-how-did-this-person-find-my-name/776812/5 "2017-01-10T16:25:52Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Looks like WhatsApp shares info with Facebook to “improve advertising.” That would make sense, but how exactly would that work? I just checked my WhatsApp contacts and don’t see any obvious links to their Facebook pages. ---
**Author:** ![jacobsta811](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jacobsta811/32/2893_2.png) [@jacobsta811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacobsta811)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2017, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-whatsapp-facebook-how-did-this-person-find-my-name/776812/6 "2017-01-10T17:13:00Z")
If your phone number is connected to your facebook account, facebook uses it as part of their “people you might know”/“suggested friends”. So if he added your number into his contacts on his phone (under any name), and allows facebook to access his contacts, you likely are popping up under “people you might know”. He may or may not have made the connection that you are the person from the antiques. Don’t think a phone number that is in any database anywhere is anonymous. Even if I can’t google your name I can probably pay one of the database providers for your name if you’ve used that number on a credit card, loan, bank account, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2017, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-whatsapp-facebook-how-did-this-person-find-my-name/776812/7 "2017-01-11T16:05:22Z")
Interesting. I just typed in my mobile number in the Facebook searchbar and sure enough, my page came up. Who would have guessed. But I also found how to restrict that function to only my FB Friends, so hopefully that will fix things for the future. So this person finding me may not have had anything to do with WhatsApp. I think he just searched my mobile number in Facebook, or perhaps as jacobsta811 said, maybe I was just a suggested friend… ---
**Author:** ![demitry2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@demitry2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/demitry2)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2020, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-whatsapp-facebook-how-did-this-person-find-my-name/776812/8 "2020-06-13T06:55:02Z")
This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.