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How Facebook knows who you might be dating online

bbc.co.uk

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Re: How Facebook knows who you might be dating online

#51

Post by spdionis »

morganvachon wrote: post #16
newman314 wrote: post #10

I think this goes well beyond that. I've had FB suggest neighbors to me even though we have never exchanged emails or friends etc.

That's simply down to proximity. Facebook, like Google, can tell based on your GPS where "home" is (where your phone spends the night, basically) and it knows the same about your neighbors. Your smartphone is a funnel for detailed information about you to whatever apps you install on it, especially social and communication apps. Google in particular creeped me out with this kind of "feature". A few years ago when I s…

When i bought my android tablet i spent a few nights at my girlfriend's place and google picked it up as my home. Years after that my "home" is still there even though i do not live there. I have found no way to change that manually...

Re: How Facebook knows who you might be dating online

#52

Post by provemewrong »

morganvachon wrote: post #16
newman314 wrote: post #10

I think this goes well beyond that. I've had FB suggest neighbors to me even though we have never exchanged emails or friends etc.

That's simply down to proximity. Facebook, like Google, can tell based on your GPS where "home" is (where your phone spends the night, basically) and it knows the same about your neighbors. Your smartphone is a funnel for detailed information about you to whatever apps you install on it, especially social and communication apps. Google in particular creeped me out with this kind of "feature". A few years ago when I s…

Not even necessarily GPS, they can use WiFi geolocation. Remember the Street View WiFi snooping scandal?

Re: How Facebook knows who you might be dating online

#53

Post by psykovsky »

meric wrote: post #38
toomuchtodo wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you delete entire Facebook Message conversations?

I think I saw that option before. I know I definitely can delete messages and they don't appear in the download.

Doesn't mean they really deleted them from their servers...

Re: How Facebook knows who you might be dating online

#54

Post by pjc50 »

wongarsu wrote: post #7

The thing that I find most interesting about this article is the displayed approach towards privacy management. People quoted in this article reveal little about themselves in a dating network, and don't want to give enough information to make it possible to guess their real identity. Facebook destroys this concept by suggesting dating matches as potential facebook friends, making it possible for their dating matches…

Most people don't understand the privacy settings, and in any case they keep changing.

Re: How Facebook knows who you might be dating online

#58

Post by r3bl »

jzd wrote: post #33
r3bl wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't you just delete the Facebook app from your smartphone? That way, Facebook won't have access to your contact list. Therefore, this should not happen. I'm a casual Facebook user since like 2008, but I never even considered installing any of the Facebook apps on my phone.

This is irrelevant. You will still be tied to a unique identifier and tracked all over the web because your browser fingerprint (yes, it's probably unique: test here https://panopticlick.eff.org/ ) will be reported back for every site affiliated with an advertising network affiliated with Facebook.

Not necessarily true with smartphones.

I just tried it out. The site acknowledges it tested out ~6M devices so far. It's not that big of a number actually. My browser turned out to be unique even though I'm using a pretty common method (basically just run Chrome on an Android).

I've sent the version of Android (which was falsely detected because I upgraded to a newer version, but I'm still sending the info about the older version, so I'm assuming this is a bug), my Android model (and build) and my timezone. Anyone who bought the same model from my country (and possibly even the surrounding countries) would probably get the same fingerprint (unless he's using a different browser).

Re: How Facebook knows who you might be dating online

#59

Post by r3bl »

unfortunateface wrote: post #56

Facebook App copies your phone book. Facebook App copies your matches phone book. Facebook finds that your phone book contains your matches number and vice-versa. Facebook suggests your match as a friend and vice-versa. Nice and simple.

Exactly. This article basically just talks about how you gave the permission to an app to use your address book and then complains that it's using your address book to identify who you should add as a friend. It's your fault for agreeing to install an app that requests these permissions without understanding why it needs those privileges from your smartphone.

Re: How Facebook knows who you might be dating online

#60

Post by throwaway7767 »

multinglets wrote: post #6

Yeah, I haven't actually used facebook for anything in years, so now I'm deleting my account and I will use a temporary phone for any future situation where I need it. I will also be going out of my way to spread as much FUD among my less tech savvy friends as I possibly can. Go Zuck yourself, Mark.

No need to spread FUD, just tell the truth. It's facebook that has to distort the truth and hide their intentions to get people to use their shit.
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