Facebook Figured Out My Family Secrets, and It Won't Tell Me How

Separately I'm getting all kinds of people from that town, I can only imagine why, but it's pretty damn scary. And of course I have to wonder who I'm being recommended to and/or my family is being recommended to.

For example you and a group of 10 other people took photos at the same location which FB sees as a small gathering of intimate friends. It will need to qualify the location is not a public restaurant to be sure its an intimate gathering. The chances of you connecting with that person are then really high. And if you are and the other person are in each others photos, then it's almost a certainty you will end up connecting on FB should FB recommend the connection. The more connected FB's network is, the more it can extrapolate based on commonalities from the first degree graph of your network.

It's also the reason why Google is betting so heavy on photos and offering free unlimited storage -- remember, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Google wants to build a social network graph based on location and facial recognition to draw on proximity.

With AI this will get even more uncanny. For example a wedding will have a certain photography profile (number of pics taken, the time of day, the location and venue based on Google Maps or past photographing histroy, the lighting in the photos, etc). Once you throw AI into the mix you realize Google doesn't need to draw out any conclusions. It can throw all these parameters into the AI engine and draw up proximity.

In this case, Google or FB will not be able to tell you how they drew the connection, because even they won't know. All you can assume is the AI engine will take dozens of parameters today and hundreds tomorrow. Google's deep investment in AI infrastructure is a bigger testament to this.

TL;DR: I think their graph includes non-FB-using people.

It’d be interesting to make a BDSG §34 request about "People you may know", just to see how Facebook responds (and if you have to pull them through court)

You are not "handing" them anything with an expectation of reciprocity, you (in most cases) willingly give up information about yourself to them in exchange for their free service. They don't need an "excuse" - you were as free to say "no" as they are to you.

I agree that in cases where others give up information about people they know there's no consent from the person (necessarily) but even that is between the person and their peers. There are people in my life who I don't share information with because I know how fast that information will spread if they know it; the kind of privacy etiquette required to respect people's privacy wishes will likely become more commonplace as it's made clear indexing organizations only know what people tell them.

I've been against facebook for some time yet even I don't agree with writers of sensationalist pieces like this. You have what's coming to you when you use third party services like facebook then complain about the imbalance of power they imply. Turns out the reason people who adamantly don't use those services do so other than just 'hipsterism' or whatever you thought were their reasons.

Maybe it was a coincidence but it made me very anxious so I left the platform.

Although on second thoughts that might be via FB messenger app having access to contacts. Either way it figures out the person via the phone number.

Combined with 2nd and 3rd degree phone and email connections that might be a strong indicator for FBs algorithm.

Their privacy, not yours.

why does people think this is rocket science? even the supposedly clever people here try to imagine complex algorithms. geez. its 1:1 text match on phone numbers.

their genius move was getting enough idiots uploading their entire phone address book for free.

The other day, I had a couple of friends at my place. At some point, we decided to order pizzas. We did so online, at my usual pizzeria. 30 minutes later (not sure of the delay, but it was before pizzas were delivered), one of my friend check her facebook on her mobile and see ... an ad for that pizzeria. She said she's never seen the ad before, nor ever ordered at that pizzeria.

The best I could guess about it would probably make use of phones gps, detecting we were close and what I was doing on the net, through social share buttons tracking. Anyway, that's outrageous. Facebook use of personal data is that creepy thing we were all afraid Google would do. It really feels like having a glass of wine in your sofa, and the telephone rings and someone unknown says : "cheers!".

So even if you've never been tagged in a photo or checked into a location, there is a possibility that just by appearing in a random stranger's Facebook photo, they would be able to place you in the vicinity of said stranger at a particular time, and make more conclusions/connections from there.

I told my wife about the purchase and 10 minutes later she sees the exact same kit that I bought in her FB ads.

Does this mean that Amazon sells/shares this data or I am too paranoid? However it's hard to believe in such a coincidence.

I've noticed that, but not sure if the author of the article had it that way as the other person said she didn't know her.

Facebook shows Bob a suggestion to add Alice.

It doesn't explain all cases, but it does explain quite a few.

Facebook is a "search giant" now?

This link seems to be working

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/08/facebook-figured-out-my-f...

https://ww2gravestone.com/holocaust-in-the-netherlands/

For contemporary instances, consider that the present U.S. administration openly supports racist, neo-Nazi, White Supremecist, and similar organisations. Social-graph association of undocumented immigrants, Muslims, gang- (or non-gang-) members, or similar inferences, all come readily to mind.

whatsapp is just a lucky because you have to add a phone numbers to youre phone's contacts to talk on whatsapp.