I see all kind of theories about the misterious nature of facebook recommendations. I believe that they use all kind of complex things but most of those unexpected recommendations could be explained by assuming that facebook recommend you people that have being cheking you out. If you saw someone on the street and that person check your facebook, they are recommended to you and it looks like magic because you did nothing. I do not know if this is the case but it is simple and seems to explain a lot of those strange recommendations.
Facebook Figured Out My Family Secrets, and It Won't Tell Me How
61–70 of 131 posts
Re: Facebook Figured Out My Family Secrets, and It Won't Tell Me How
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
It would be much appreciated if you could leave the political hyperbole somewhere else. You can make a point without stooping to tenuous, politically motivated, and controversial accusations.
Those are in fact the most relevant elements of this question. They are elements which, as in the case of the Netherlands, don't matter at all, until they mean everything.
Accusing the current administration of openly supporting neo-nazi groups is political flamebait.
You are certainly entitled to your opinion on how "serious" the situation is but I, (and probably others) would appreciate it if you kept the hyperbole and rhetoric minimized. Your original point stands fine without it, and in fact that accusation weakens your entire post and makes it appear little more than a simple troll.
Re: Facebook Figured Out My Family Secrets, and It Won't Tell Me How
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are 100% correct about this. People have appeared on "People you may know" when I have absolutely zero connection to them other than I have chatted to the on What's App... I'm afraid I may have to stop using the service soon... was great until FB bought it.
I don't use WhatsApp. Most of the people I know don't. People have appeared on my suggested contacts when I have no other connection with them. Clearly Facebook uses many, many sources of data.
> People have appeared on my suggested contacts when I have no other connection with them.
Have you considered the possibility that those other people have been searching for you on FB for some reason?
Re: Facebook Figured Out My Family Secrets, and It Won't Tell Me How
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those are in fact the most relevant elements of this question. They are elements which, as in the case of the Netherlands, don't matter at all, until they mean everything.
Accusing the current administration of openly supporting neo-nazi groups is political flamebait. You are certainly entitled to your opinion on how "serious" the situation is but I, (and probably others) would appreciate it if you kept the hyperbole and rhetoric minimized. Your original point stands fine without it, and in fact that accusation weakens your entire post and makes it appear little more than a simple trol…
Sometimes the truth is flamebait. Doesn't make it any less true.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865686908/Sen-Mike-Lee-re...
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/346348-hatch-my-brother-d...
Re: Facebook Figured Out My Family Secrets, and It Won't Tell Me How
#65Though very uncanny, this is rather easy to extrapolate even using the basic facets FB has available. But the most overlooked is photos. They are offline beacons and are to offline tracking what websites are to online tracking.
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.
Re: Facebook Figured Out My Family Secrets, and It Won't Tell Me How
#66Not entirely relevant to the original story, but Facebook does use machine learning to identify faces as well (similar technology to how Google or Apple uses in their Photo apps).
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.
Re: Facebook Figured Out My Family Secrets, and It Won't Tell Me How
#67It definitely hooked into Whatsapp. Was chatting to a girl from tinder on there didn't even have last name...next day FB suggested her.
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.
Re: Facebook Figured Out My Family Secrets, and It Won't Tell Me How
#68Facebook once suggested I friend my dentist. We've never had any online correspondence.
Re: Facebook Figured Out My Family Secrets, and It Won't Tell Me How
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Accusing the current administration of openly supporting neo-nazi groups is political flamebait. You are certainly entitled to your opinion on how "serious" the situation is but I, (and probably others) would appreciate it if you kept the hyperbole and rhetoric minimized. Your original point stands fine without it, and in fact that accusation weakens your entire post and makes it appear little more than a simple trol…
Sometimes the truth is flamebait. Doesn't make it any less true. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865686908/Sen-Mike-Lee-re... http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/346348-hatch-my-brother-d...
Neither article of which suggests in any way what you posted. Your opinion, and your feelings are not the "truth". I understand you have strong feelings, but please, stop polluting this space.
Re: Facebook Figured Out My Family Secrets, and It Won't Tell Me How
#70I've just assumed this is through whatsapp. I've logged into whatsapp with my phone number, fb know my phone number (2fa codes), and they've slurped my address book from my phone and then show me connections on fb that are a few degrees of separation. This is the only way I can think that neighbours I barely know show up on the "people you may know" feature -- we're connected through neighbours I know far better.
You are 100% correct about this. People have appeared on "People you may know" when I have absolutely zero connection to them other than I have chatted to the on What's App... I'm afraid I may have to stop using the service soon... was great until FB bought it.
>You are 100% correct about this. People have appeared on "People you may know" when I have absolutely zero connection to them other than I have chatted to the on What's App...
Well, isn't it obvious though? Facebook owns WhatsApp and has access to both "social graphs".
(Plus, it can also infer "people you may know" from people your friends in FB and Whatsapp know).