# "Other people you may know on Facebook"--Okay, HOW? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 31, 2010, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-people-you-may-know-on-facebook-okay-how/534488 "2010-03-31T19:14:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-people-you-may-know-on-facebook-okay-how/534488/21 "2010-04-01T01:24:43Z")
> [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](#): > > No, you give them your login credentials for those email accounts. That means that they can look at everything that’s accessible through those credentials, even if they don’t actively exploit it for most people (and Facebook’s record wrt privacy is pretty dismal) Huh. I thought they used the proper utilities provided by the mail accounts, which means\* that they don’t get the passwords at all, and only get what you authorize. That’s how everything else I’ve used does it. If you are actually giving Facebook your password, I could see a bigger problem. But I still probably wouldn’t mind. I honestly don’t have much that truly requires privacy in there. Email addresses would be the only thing worth anything at all. And I already gave those up willingly. \*or at least should mean ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-people-you-may-know-on-facebook-okay-how/534488/22 "2010-04-01T02:35:35Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > that’s the entire point of facebook (to communicate with people you know),. Well if I have email contacts in my Hotmail/Yahoo/Gmail/etc. accounts I’m already in contact with them, aren’t I? I think turning over my contacts list is way too intrusive and balked at the idea. The reason I (recently) set up a FB profile is to make my contact info available to old friends, classmates, or shipmates who I haven’t seen for many years and may be searching for me. The only difference I see between FB and email is that email is a letter and FB is a postcard. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-people-you-may-know-on-facebook-okay-how/534488/23 "2010-04-01T03:20:40Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Huh. I thought they used the proper utilities provided by the mail accounts, which means\* that they don’t get the passwords at all, and only get what you authorize. That’s how everything else I’ve used does it. That is correct. Facebook never gets your password, it can’t rummage through your email account, it only gets what you authorize it to get (email addresses in your contact list) and only once when you authorize it to do so. It’s not a big deal, and saves you the time from typing them all in. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-people-you-may-know-on-facebook-okay-how/534488/24 "2010-04-01T03:35:53Z")
> [@Flutterby](#): > > So that’s how they might have suggested my aunt to me? She let them look at her contacts and she popped up when I logged in? > > That one weirded me out a little bit. None of my contacts (at that time) were in any way related to that side of the family that lives on the other side of the country and I didn’t let them have access to my contacts. One day, she’s on the suggestions. Along with a couple cousins. I had that same experience with my dad. My dad and I have no mutual friends at all - I didn’t even know he’d joined Facebook until one day he popped up as a possible person I know. I was . . . somewhat perturbed. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-people-you-may-know-on-facebook-okay-how/534488/25 "2010-04-01T03:39:20Z")
How about this one…A few months back my FB page wouldn’t work for three days (seems to be a common problem if you google for it), in the mean time I set up another account. The ONLY reason I did this was so that I could look at my wall and see if anyone had written on it. Now, I used a different email address for this account and the name I chose, while similar was different. For example, if my real (and FB) name is Joey Potash, this one was Joey Pozansh. As soon as I logged on it started suggesting friends to me, they were all IRL friends (and FB friends from my real account). Also, when I mentioned this to people they all tell me it suggested that name to them as a friend. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-people-you-may-know-on-facebook-okay-how/534488/26 "2010-04-01T03:40:51Z")
How about this one…A few months back my FB page wouldn’t work for three days (seems to be a common problem if you google for it), in the mean time I set up another account. The ONLY reason I did this was so that I could look at my wall and see if anyone had written on it. Now, I used a different email address for this account and the name I chose, while similar was different. For example, if my real (and FB) name is Joey Potash, this one was Joey Pozansh. As soon as I logged on it started suggesting friends to me, they were all IRL friends (and FB friends from my real account). Also, when I mentioned this to people they all tell me it suggested that name to them as a friend. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Gnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_gnomer/32/3466_2.png) [@Miss\_Gnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Gnomer)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-people-you-may-know-on-facebook-okay-how/534488/27 "2010-04-01T04:10:56Z")
I just joined facebook … and up popped a list that was SCARY! An guy I dated years ago, people I had worked with and some others I know (including my sister who has a completely different surname to me) … I have a new email that none of these people would know, I haven’t entered any information into Facebook that could link me to anyone … the list also came up with people I don’t know … but about 50% were people I know … only info I had put in was my name and date of birth … since most of those people don’t know my date of birth … has to be based on name searches. Haven’t been a fan of the idea of facebook … the list put me off even more! ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-people-you-may-know-on-facebook-okay-how/534488/28 "2010-04-01T14:13:05Z")
> [@Miss\_Gnomer](#): > > has to be based on name searches. Not necessarily - and don’t think that all those people have done name searches on you. All those people (or at least some of them) had given facebook your previous e-mail address. SOMEWHERE there is a connection between your previous and current e-mail address, even if Ex-Boyfriend has no idea what your new address is. I’ll create a brand new e-mail address, and then join facebook with it, and report back. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-people-you-may-know-on-facebook-okay-how/534488/29 "2010-04-01T14:19:12Z")
Nope - nothing. Did you enter what high school you went to? Enter an IM client to pull contacts from? Send any friend requests? If not, then at some point your old address had been tied to your new one - even if not by you. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-people-you-may-know-on-facebook-okay-how/534488/30 "2010-04-01T14:49:56Z")
Thanks for the replies (says Ulf the OP). Just to clarify, we weren’t Facebook members. I can grasp more easily now how it is that the 5 people we know well showed up on the list of the “other people you know,” and I can even sort of get the two we knew a little (both had/have our email address, just haven’t used it in a while), but I still can’t figure the two we’ve never heard of. BTW, I googled one of them and came up with absolutely nothing that suggests any link at all. It seems unlikely that either of them would’ve searched for us. Maybe they are friends of some of the other people on the list. Oh well. If I learn anything more about them I’ll post further… ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-people-you-may-know-on-facebook-okay-how/534488/31 "2010-04-01T15:06:14Z")
> [@](#): > > I still can’t figure the two we’ve never heard of. BTW, I googled one of them and came up with absolutely nothing that suggests any link at all. It seems unlikely that either of them would’ve searched for us. Maybe they are friends of some of the other people on the list. You may never find out. When you’re a member and you get friend recommendations, it’ll say something like, “Friend suggestion: John Doe (8 mutual friends)”. I’ll get recommendations that have NO mutual friends (i.e. people I’m friends with John Doe is also friends with). It’s probably their algorithm testing out the limits to see if it can extrapolate friends-of-friends-of-friends who should be friends. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-people-you-may-know-on-facebook-okay-how/534488/32 "2010-04-02T23:26:06Z")
> [@JSexton](#): > > But why give them access to that one at all? Email login credentials are not required by facebook. The only reason to do so is for your convenience, to find people you know. It’s like volunteering for a survey and then making up the answers; it only wastes their time and yours. The reason I used a throwaway email is so I never have to worry about security settings that way. Facebook changes security criteria all the time and it only takes once of me not being vigilant and missing a setting somehow, and then my contact information is accessed whether I meant it to be or not. My whole account is an alias, so my real name is not searchable at all and the people I’m friends with are people I want to be friends with while still having a publicly viewable page. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2010, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-people-you-may-know-on-facebook-okay-how/534488/33 "2010-04-03T12:47:35Z")
Just look at Facebook as the party hostess. Presumably you went to the party voluntarily to mingle, chat with people, see some old friends that you haven’t seen in a long time, maybe even meet some new ones via networking and perhaps to get laid a little bit 🙂 It should come as no surprise that, throughout the course of the evening as the grapevine spreads information and rumors, people learn more about each other. The hostess might introduce strangers to you and maybe even introduce somebody that you already know, or knew years ago. Facebook and other social networking sites are just doing what people have already been doing for years. Don’t join a social networking site and then be alarmed that it’s doing its job. At least in the virtual world you can decline the offer without having to do it to the person’s face. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-people-you-may-know-on-facebook-okay-how/534488/34 "2010-04-03T15:22:58Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > Thanks for the replies (says Ulf the OP). Just to clarify, we weren’t Facebook members. I can grasp more easily now how it is that the 5 people we know well showed up on the list of the “other people you know,” and I can even sort of get the two we knew a little (both had/have our email address, just haven’t used it in a while), but I still can’t figure the two we’ve never heard of. BTW, I googled one of them and came up with absolutely nothing that suggests any link at all. It seems unlikely that either of them would’ve searched for us. Maybe they are friends of some of the other people on the list. They likely are friends of your friends. If not, there may be no good reason why they were suggested. Facebook is able to make some good suggestions based on the data they have, but they’re definitely not perfect. > [@Munch](#): > > You may never find out. When you’re a member and you get friend recommendations, it’ll say something like, “Friend suggestion: John Doe (8 mutual friends)”. I’ll get recommendations that have NO mutual friends (i.e. people I’m friends with John Doe is also friends with). It’s probably their algorithm testing out the limits to see if it can extrapolate friends-of-friends-of-friends who should be friends. It seems to me that the “relevancy” of the friends Facebook suggests has been getting worse. I used to get friends suggestions for people I didn’t know but who were obviously friends of my Facebook friends. These unknown people would occasionally be friends with only one of my friends, but more frequently would be friends with at least two of my friends. For instance, I kept getting my best friend’s sister-in-law as a suggested friend, because I’m friends with my best friend (duh) and her husband on Facebook, and they’re both friends with his sister. So although I’ve never met the sister, I can see why Facebook might think the connection was worth bringing up. Just within the past few months I’ve been getting friend suggestions for people I’ve never heard of, often people who don’t even seem to be in the US, and who have no mutual friends listed with me. Most of these people have either incomplete profiles or have the strictest security settings on their profiles because often all I can see is their name. With no profile photos or work/school info then I have no way of knowing if we do have some distant connection. I’ve been wondering if Facebook has started suggesting people’s names at random in cases where they don’t have enough information about this person to make good friend suggestions. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-people-you-may-know-on-facebook-okay-how/534488/35 "2010-04-04T05:15:25Z")
Interesting. I don’t use facebook but I set up an account when a friend sent a link to her page 2-3 years ago. I used the fake name “J. Msomething” and didn’t fill out any details or set up a page. Last week I got an email friend request from my sister. She said she didn’t know who I was but facebook suggested me to her. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-people-you-may-know-on-facebook-okay-how/534488/36 "2010-04-04T13:26:12Z")
Your sister didn’t know who you were? That _is_ interesting! ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-people-you-may-know-on-facebook-okay-how/534488/37 "2010-04-04T15:01:27Z")
OK I got it. She didn’t know who J. Msomething was. Is it possible that your friend from 2-3 years ago at some point sent an email to your sister? Or sent her the same link that she sent to you? That’s enough to create a connection, especially after 2-3 years of facebook data mining. I get distant in-laws suggested to me, the only connection I can find is that my mother sends email to me and to her sister, and her sister sends emails to those distant cousins. I think it’s perfectly reasonable that FB would eventually get around to suggesting them to me. ---
**Author:** ![smatytaty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@smatytaty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smatytaty)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-people-you-may-know-on-facebook-okay-how/534488/38 "2011-05-25T17:51:56Z")
Im sure it adds people that you have regularly searched for in facebook. There are some people whom i only email with using an apart email acoount that i created and only access via the TOR-network. but i regularly searched them on facebook and now they pop up as people i may now. thank god i have no photo on my profile so they wont recognize when im in theirs. Im 100% sure none of them i have ever mailed via my usual email. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-people-you-may-know-on-facebook-okay-how/534488/39 "2011-05-26T04:43:43Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > OK I got it. She didn’t know who J. Msomething was. Is it possible that your friend from 2-3 years ago at some point sent an email to your sister? Or sent her the same link that she sent to you? That’s enough to create a connection, especially after 2-3 years of facebook data mining. > > I get distant in-laws suggested to me, the only connection I can find is that my mother sends email to me and to her sister, and her sister sends emails to those distant cousins. I think it’s perfectly reasonable that FB would eventually get around to suggesting them to me. In case you’re still interested in a zombie answer, no, they’ve never met, live 1000 miles from each other and the friend may not even know I have a sister, and my sister may not know I have a friend 🙂 FB couldn’t have gotten anything useful from data mining, at least the type you’d think, because I never used it. Never sent a message through FB, never searched for anyone. My theory is that I used a junk gmail address to sign up. At some point, that address got associated with my real gmail address and facebook found out by one of the many means they use to rape people’s privacy. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-people-you-may-know-on-facebook-okay-how/534488/40 "2011-05-26T06:56:04Z")
> [@Fubaya](#): > > In case you’re still interested in a zombie answer, no, they’ve never met, live 1000 miles from each other and the friend may not even know I have a sister, and my sister may not know I have a friend 🙂 > > FB couldn’t have gotten anything useful from data mining, at least the type you’d think, because I never used it. Never sent a message through FB, never searched for anyone. > > My theory is that I used a junk gmail address to sign up. At some point, that address got associated with my real gmail address and facebook found out by one of the many means they use to rape people’s privacy. And that’s exactly why my attitude has changed towards Facebook. They recently did something to make their datamining more effective, as they are now profitable, and won’t turn over their privacy information when they go public by using some tricky legal wrangling. What do they have to hide? At least I never gave them my online email address–only the one with my real name. And I don’t use my real name with anyone I don’t know personally or have met through Facebook. And I may be changing the latter soon. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-people-you-may-know-on-facebook-okay-how/534488.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-people-you-may-know-on-facebook-okay-how/534488.md?page=3)