Comments on: Creepy Goings On At Facebook

By: Jonathan Manor

Jonathan Manor — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 08:59:44 +0000

this was so creepy i looked behind my chair a couple of times to make sure no one was there.

By: Sara

Sara — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:56:04 +0000

It’s me — the girl who ate the dessert garnished with cream corn. Facebook is very strange and kind of irritating. It suggests friends to me based on people I’ve emailed *after* doing the “Friend Finder” step. Can it still have its spidery hands in my email account?

Kristy, I’m still not sure whether or not we’ve ever emailed and I’m still not sure if we have a mutual friend. I guess it will continue to plague us both.

By: Stevo

Stevo — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:05:08 +0000

Facebook is super creepy. Have you read the terms of service? Nothing that happens there is much of a surprise.

By: Cash Back

Cash Back — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:36:26 +0000

I’ve never trusted facebook. I remember back when they announced that they would display ads based on what websites we visit. That was a big red flag that they were keeping too much tabs on what we do. They have far too much information and what reason do we really have to trust them?

The CIA conspiracy link is interesting. It would all make sense. To get a network like facebook so huge you would need a large amount of funding. It is unlikely that a college kid could raise that kind of money on his own. Obviously the CIA would love to have access to something like this too.

By: TwoBackpackers

TwoBackpackers — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:32:18 +0000

I have had this experience lately too. My landlord, our building tenant and co-workers. Co-workers was strange because I have never invited anyone from work to my facebook profile. The link I found was in my digital address book. Facebook was going through my email to find connections. And of course, in my email I have all that information, even though they are not friends. Creepy is the perfect word. I keep thinking about all the information I store digitally and how risky that is. But, what other options do we have. We now need passwords for everything, and we can’t keep them all in our head.

By: Alexander

Alexander — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:13:38 +0000

Well, there are several factors in here I guess…

You have the network you’re in, city, your religion, political view, music, movies, books etc..

If you combine any of these into a key, you are probably very likely to end up getting people you actually know.

By: Abbey

Abbey — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:36:44 +0000

Not solely contact related, but somewhat similar.

I created a facebook event and threw a shin-dig about a week ago. Approx. 15 people from facebook RSVP’d that they were attending. Only 4 of those 15 showed up (don’t worry, I had plenty of non-facers present – not a total failure) but the day after my little get together… in the section below where facebook now shares “popular” content, I had a message that listed my event and said “4 of your friends attended.”

When I first saw it, I thought, oh, I guess only 4 people RSVP’d attending, so I checked the event page and sure enough, there were about 15 people signed up. However, facebook somehow knew exactly who actually showed up. It even listed the four people who came and got it correct. Now this has to be a coincidence, I refuse to believe that this is somehow actually possible. Maybe a post-event survey (even though I’ve certainly never seen one before).

Very strange.

By: weltreise

weltreise — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:31:03 +0000

What gives me the creeps is that facebook asks for your email password to create the initial contact list, and people are are actually using that function. You want my guess how many will not change the pwd afterwards?

There’s a word for that: PISHING.

By: Webjourneyman

Webjourneyman — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:43:26 +0000

Heres to creep you out some more, Facebook is Big Brother (CIA) in disguise:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10456534

By: Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:39:28 +0000

I noticed yesterday, a suggestion of person I spoke to on a different website about 6 years ago as “a friend you may know” and was wondering how on earth they managed to link us. The consumerist post is very informative but it makes me wonder just how much more aggregate information they gather and store other than the basics we provide. Very clever of them to keep this data all that time if they are only just started to use it now for the site now.

By: Kate

Kate — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:46:58 +0000

this actually just happened to me a couple days ago – someone who I have only talked to on AIM and met on another website (don’t have their email, don’t know any mutual people as far as I know) popped up. It freaked me out, and I actually thought I was reading it wrong at first. Creepy…

By: Nathan

Nathan — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:39:46 +0000

You have the option of letting Facebook go through your email addressbook. Perhaps someone you’ve friended on Facebook or exchanged emails with has exchanged email with your mystery person. Ah, that’s pretty much what the link to the Consumerist above says.

My best WTF! friend suggestion was my cheater ex-wife who I’ve not spoken to in 5 years. Ha ha! “That’s a big ‘X’ on that one, thanks!”

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:59:03 +0000

I’ve noticed weird things like that happening, too. People who I know show up on my ‘Friend Suggestions,’ but there’s no Facebook link between me and that person. (i.e. no common friends) How does Facebook know that I know that person? Kinda creepy if you ask me.

By: Shawn

Shawn — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:47:37 +0000

This post on Consumerist explains it
http://consumerist.com/5301425/facebook-where-are-you-getting-these-crazy-friend-suggestions-from