Facebook recommended that a psychiatrist’s patients friend each other

I have very little sympathy for a business model based on surveillance and manipulation. Figuring out how to generate revenue is Facebook's problem. Lots of unethical behavior would be valuable in various business models. Facebook can police themselves or they eventually invite (probably less desirable) legislation crafted by pissed off people.

> Threatening Facebook employees with physical harm

For the record, I am in almost all circumstances I am a pacifist. I would never advocate for physical harm. That said, I have nothing against revealing the private information of the people who insist on doing the same as a business model.

> directly inimical to its interests

> I'm not sure what to suggest in its place

That's easy; you change arrange it so they want to do the necessary due diligence of making sure new any new algorithm is both necessary and safe. We accomplish this with liability. Data needs to be toxic. If you collect data and store it for long periods of time or aggregate it with other types of data, then you are responsible for problems that arise from your databases. In the case of this doctor, if any problems happen to her patients from Facebook's disclosures, then Facebook is the liable party.

They can decide the level of safety required. Either transit the data for the users blindly and enjoy immunity like a common carrier, or inspect the data and pay for the problems that derive from that inspection.

> finding ways to convince people the problem actually exists

That's always a good idea, but in the meantime it is not the responsibility of the user to understand information theory before critiquing Facebook's claims. Blaming the victim is never the right answer.

I can certainly understand that it seems kind of incredible to you. It seems extremely incredible to me! I still haven't quite got wholly around it. And, yes, I can "just" call people up, or text or email them, and sometimes even get a response. I still occasionally do so, and still occasionally get together with one or two people at a time for a few drinks and to catch up. The problem comes in where you try to organize something on a larger scale, or where someone else does so. It would be technically inaccurate to say that to do so is impossible without using Facebook. But I've certainly found it ineffective to try to set things up via email, which was not the case a couple of years ago.

I would not be surprised to learn that I'm as old as, or older than, you are. Most of the people in my former social circle are somewhat older than I am. I'm pretty sure this isn't just a "people in their twenties" thing.

(Edited to add that I don't understand why you're getting downvoted, and I wish people wouldn't without explaining why they're doing so. Certainly, if it's out of some misguided assumption that I've chosen to put myself and my experience out there without being prepared to address people who express entirely reasonable incredulity and doubt about my veracity, let me take a moment to note that such action on my behalf, while certainly appreciated, is entirely unnecessary.)

It seems like that is the source of 99% of 'creepy' Facebook recommendations: Facebook doesn't realize that while 'has phone number' is a great indicator of 'knowing somebody' it has poor transitive properties.

People You May Know still had old high school friends, my old real estate broker (??), and someone I starred on GitHub. I have absolutely no idea how they connected that account to my old one, considering Google Mail is the only other service I've used on that laptop.