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Facebook Promises That Location Data is 'Only One of the Factors' in Friend Suggestions [Updated]

Cineplex said:
Can't you see that this is not a tool to connect you to your friends? This is a product that is designed to turn you into another product. You are making other people rich as they sell your personal information, habits, location data, web browsing habits, and God knows that else! How are you benefiting here? They know more about you than you do! Where is your share of the revenue? Zuckerburg is laughing in your face all the way to the bank. Convenience should NOT be a reason to sell your soul to the devil. All you are doing is to help the rich build a world that makes them richer while you stay trapped forever in the dream of consumerism. Can you not see where the future is going here?

Let me tell you a story. I deleted my first account and did nothing for a year. The next year I created a new account with the same name but fake details, fake location, fake job, & nothing else to see what would happen. I even used a different location on a different computer. The system was struggling trying to suggest friends....couldn't suggest anyone I knew (for obvious reasons). Then I uploaded a profile picture...BOOM...all my old friends were suggested the next time I logged in. Pretty scary stuff, especially considering that my prior account was supposedly "deleted". Clearly not. That was all the proof that I ever needed that Facebook was not a good idea.
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Whatever works (or doesn't work) for you--it doesn't have much of an effect on others who have their own take on what they do or don't do.
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Hustler1337 said:
I stopped using Facebook almost 10 years ago when I realised it's full of people who feel the need to compare their lives with others and impress others with their fake lifestyles.


Frivolous? I don't know about you but for many, an app covertly monitoring their location is a serious breach of personal privacy. Yes, you can disable it and not use the app at all, but the average Facebook user doesn't even know their locations are being mapped out and sold. It's Facebook, not the CIA.
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Just like there are people using telephones to make robocalls and annoy many people, but it doesn't change the use and usefulness of telephones for many others who use them for other purposes that are useful to them.
 
C DM said:
Whatever works (or doesn't work) for you--it doesn't have much of an effect on others who have their own take on what they do or don't do.
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Just like there are people using telephones to make robocalls and annoy many people, but it doesn't change the use and usefulness of telephones for many others who use them for other purposes that are useful to them.
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LOL. Okay. The fact is Facebook's "profile" on you is a lot more dangerous than a telephone robocall. If you want old Zuck to know every intimate detail about you...fine with me. Don't go crying to everyone else when your secrets are no longer secrets.
 
Cineplex said:
LOL. Okay. The fact is Facebook's "profile" on you is a lot more dangerous than a telephone robocall. If you want old Zuck to know every intimate detail about you...fine with me. Don't go crying to everyone else when your secrets are no longer secrets.
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You don't have to tell your secrets to Facebook or anyone else you don't want to.
 
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C DM said:
Just like you can choose not to tell someone your secrets on a phone call, you don't have to tell your secrets to Facebook or anyone else you don't want to.
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Problem is....sometimes you don't know what Facebook really knows. Facebook, allegedly(can't find the article), profiles and tracks people that aren't even a part of its network. So now you don't really know what it knows. It has been suggested that its facial recognition tech is able to associate non-Facebook members photos to its non-member profiles. That is very scary stuff. A phone call you have a choice to say one thing or another....in Facebook ad tracking land...you might not be asked.

People should really take a harder look at these products before using them. Facebook is probably being used right now by law enforcement to track and profile people. They would probably pay a lot of money for that. In 20-50 years you will probably see some unclassified government documents that speak to this.
 
Cineplex said:
Problem is....sometimes you don't know what Facebook really knows. Facebook, allegedly(can't find the article), profiles and tracks people that aren't even a part of its network. So now you don't really know what it knows. It has been suggested that its facial recognition tech is able to associate non-Facebook members photos to its non-member profiles. That is very scary stuff. A phone call you have a choice to say one thing or another....in Facebook ad tracking land...you might not be asked.

People should really take a harder look at these products before using them. Facebook is probably being used right now by law enforcement to track and profile people. They would probably pay a lot of money for that. In 20-50 years you will probably see some unclassified government documents that speak to this.
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People can certainly worry about whatever it is that worries them.
 
C DM said:
People can certainly worry about whatever it is that worries them.
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Thanks for the additional quip. I certainly enjoy a good conversation....but....you haven't said anything here. Adds to your post count though, so A+!
 
A few months ago a friend and I started discussing an acquaintance we had made together a couple of years earlier. We only saw them from time to time and hadn't seen the person since that time. I don't think the guy even knew my name.

We mentioned the person's name quite a number of times during the conversation as the sound of the name was pertinent to the discussion.

Who do you think popped up on my 'people you may know' within hours of having this conversation? The acquaintance, no friends in common, nothing. My friend is not even on Facebook.

It may be pure coincidence, although I cannot figure how, but if Facebook is listening to conversations to pick up friend suggestions, then that is seriously creepy.
 
Cineplex said:
Thanks for the additional quip. I certainly enjoy a good conversation....but....you haven't said anything here. Adds to your post count though, so A+!
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You mentioned being worried about something and that others should be worried about it, and I mentioned that what some worry about doesn't necessarily translate to what others would worry about. And that just because someone is worried about something doesn't mean that it's something to actually worry about when it comes to others. Seems fairly straightforward. (And A+ on turning to ad hominems rather quickly there--certainly makes a point, just a different one.)
 
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ryancgoodfellow said:
What a load of bull. I've been showing my apartment for rent here in Montreal. People came from LA and they were never added as a contact. Yet they consistently appear as my friend suggestions. So either they are mining my locations, or they are mining my iMessages, because there is nowhere else they can get that information.
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I am pretty sure they are looking at emails. It constantly recommends clients to me who have no friends in common with me.
 
Cineplex said:
How are you benefiting here? They know more about you than you do! Where is your share of the revenue?
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I'm benefitting by being able to contact people and use group pages, the most useful form of online forums for clubs, etc. to ever exist. And since I'm not so jealous of Zuckerburg's revenue that it puts me in a bad mood, there's little cost. I've got some real info on my account, some fake, but nothing I wouldn't be comfortable with random people knowing.

I was going to shut down my account a month ago just cause I didn't use it much, so I told my friend, and he asked how people were going to contact me, and I said "oh yeah, nvm." I'd rather everyone use iMessage or Jabber for messaging, but that's now how it is, so oh well.
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sclawis300 said:
I am pretty sure they are looking at emails. It constantly recommends clients to me who have no friends in common with me.
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If you gave them your email account, they probably are. I also don't trust Gmail at all anymore since I found strong evidence of them leaking my contacts and Google search history to advertisers, but I don't know if Google would collaborate with Facebook.
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"Location information by itself doesn't indicate that two people might be friends," said the Facebook spokesperson. "That's why location is only one of the factors we use to suggest people you may know."
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Why would the spokesperson even say this? Obviously location data isn't the ONLY factor. But now we know that it IS a factor. I didn't know this.
 
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sudo1996 said:
I'm benefitting by being able to contact people and use group pages, the most useful form of online forums for clubs, etc. to ever exist. And since I'm not so jealous of Zuckerburg's revenue that it puts me in a bad mood, there's little cost. I've got some real info on my account, some fake, but nothing I wouldn't be comfortable with random people knowing.

I was going to shut down my account a month ago just cause I didn't use it much, so I told my friend, and he asked how people were going to contact me, and I said "oh yeah, nvm." I'd rather everyone use iMessage or Jabber for messaging, but that's now how it is, so oh well.
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If you gave them your email account, they probably are. I also don't trust Gmail at all anymore since I found strong evidence of them leaking my contacts and Google search history to advertisers, but I don't know if Google would collaborate with Facebook.
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Why would the spokesperson even say this? Obviously location data isn't the ONLY factor. But now we know that it IS a factor. I didn't know this.
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I could go on and on...but this guy sums up what I am trying to say better.
 
sudo1996 said:
I skimmed it, and it's all arguments I've heard and have considered, nothing I actually care about or think anyone should care about (at least in the US).
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The main problem is now people don't care....but if all of a sudden you do start to care....it is too late. There seems to be way too many things you have to give up in the terms and conditions....half of which they don't even explain. Just because the US is safe today, doesn't mean that under the right conditions...things could get ugly. It just feels like people are willing to give up all their rights to have a webcam in the fridge and the heat turned on automatically.
 
Cineplex said:
The main problem is now people don't care....but if all of a sudden you do start to care....it is too late. There seems to be way too many things you have to give up in the terms and conditions....half of which they don't even explain. Just because the US is safe today, doesn't mean that under the right conditions...things could get ugly. It just feels like people are willing to give up all their rights to have a webcam in the fridge and the heat turned on automatically.
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I know they can only have my data that's captured somewhere, either on Facebook or elsewhere on the Internet, so that's my safety. I don't put cameras where they're not needed or use unnecessary "smart home" stuff. Nobody cares about me or my family specifically anyway. And we have guns, if it comes to that.

All that is so unlikely to matter that it's worth taking the risk anyway so I can do something with my life instead of sitting around, refusing to be invited to stuff my friends are all going to because I refuse to go on Facebook. At least the guns are worthwhile because they're fun.
 
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cerote said:
Yea my manager keeps showing up in my suggested friends. Funny thing is I don't have her last name in my phone, which shouldn't matter as I don't allow access to my contacts but who knows with Facebook. I don't have mutual friends. And the kicker is she doesn't even live or work near my office. Her office is 2 states away. Also I don't have my work listed.
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A lot of Facebook users connect their Facebook to their smartphone address book. If your manager does that, and he has your contact info in his address book, then Facebook will think that you two must have known each other. Facebook does not need to have access to both of your address books.
 
Hustler1337 said:
I stopped using Facebook almost 10 years ago when I realised it's full of people who feel the need to compare their lives with others and impress others with their fake lifestyles.
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You seem like the exact type of person no one on Facebook would regret not being friends with so...good for you?
 
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