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Facebook uses location to suggest new friends

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Re: Facebook uses location to suggest new friends

#51

Post by ProAm »

drcross wrote: post #17
alistairSH wrote: post #16

I don't understand why people use the Facebook native app at all. Their mobile website works quite well and should avoid many of the issues with the app (location sharing, battery drain, etc).

Facebook recently disabled their messenger platform on the website, when you click the messages tab it brings you directly to the app store to install their app. This means you have to use the App to message people. The app requires such egregious permissions that I absolutely refuse to install it. It's a shame because it worked perfectly in the past.

It can't be too long until we can run VM's on our phones and isolate all our apps from the main phone OS? This seems like a great need to be filled.

Re: Facebook uses location to suggest new friends

#52

Post by jedberg »

They probably aren't using location but IP block. In fact, I'm almost certain your IP block is used for both suggested friends and your Newsfeed.

I used to see my coworkers all the time in my Newsfeed, but now that I don't work there (and therefore we don't share an IP anymore) I suddenly started seeing them a lot less.

I go to their page and see they are posting, and after interacting with a few posts they started showing up again, but I have to go to their page and interact every few weeks to get them to keep showing up.

Also, whenever I go and visit the old office, if I use Facebook there, all of a sudden I get them all showing up in my Newsfeed again.

Re: Facebook uses location to suggest new friends

#53

Post by Kluny »

drcross wrote: post #17
alistairSH wrote: post #16

I don't understand why people use the Facebook native app at all. Their mobile website works quite well and should avoid many of the issues with the app (location sharing, battery drain, etc).

Facebook recently disabled their messenger platform on the website, when you click the messages tab it brings you directly to the app store to install their app. This means you have to use the App to message people. The app requires such egregious permissions that I absolutely refuse to install it. It's a shame because it worked perfectly in the past.

You can still use the website for messaging if you use Firefox as your browser (android only).

Re: Facebook uses location to suggest new friends

#54

Post by nthj »

drcross wrote: post #17
alistairSH wrote: post #16

I don't understand why people use the Facebook native app at all. Their mobile website works quite well and should avoid many of the issues with the app (location sharing, battery drain, etc).

Facebook recently disabled their messenger platform on the website, when you click the messages tab it brings you directly to the app store to install their app. This means you have to use the App to message people. The app requires such egregious permissions that I absolutely refuse to install it. It's a shame because it worked perfectly in the past.

Paper on iOS includes Messenger functionality in the same app (I'm not a fan of the constant app switching) and seems to avoid the power drain of the regular app.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/paper-stories-from-facebook/...

Re: Facebook uses location to suggest new friends

#55

Post by tdkl »

jasonkostempski wrote: post #11
ulli wrote: post #8

Goddamned Facebook!! Creating environments filled with unintended consequences everyday of the week. There are so many untrained, misguided, semi-literate people in the world, who just get thrown into these environments totally unprepared. It literally sickens me. Sorry I woke up today morning to read this - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/salem/21-yr-old-woma... Parents get blamed. Police get blamed. Govts g…

That's a shitty story, but blaming Facebook for it seems a bit of a stretch. By that logic, photo editing software is responsible; computers; electricity, etc. A horrible society is definitley responsible for that one.

Yes, horrible society that overvalues a social networking site in every aspect in our lives.

Re: Facebook uses location to suggest new friends

#56

Post by benchtobedside »

lucideer wrote: post #34
drcross wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook recently disabled their messenger platform on the website, when you click the messages tab it brings you directly to the app store to install their app. This means you have to use the App to message people. The app requires such egregious permissions that I absolutely refuse to install it. It's a shame because it worked perfectly in the past.

When exactly did the function disappear for you? I'm still using the website messenger with no issues, but I wonder are my days numbered. They've also recently added WebNotifications support to the website messenger functionality which leverages the phone notifications as an app would.

I run Android with Chrome and Firefox. On Chrome browser messaging has been disabled from the mobile website, on Firefox it still functions just fine (still redirects to the Play Store frequently however).

Re: Facebook uses location to suggest new friends

#57

Post by type0 »

ProAm wrote: post #51
drcross wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook recently disabled their messenger platform on the website, when you click the messages tab it brings you directly to the app store to install their app. This means you have to use the App to message people. The app requires such egregious permissions that I absolutely refuse to install it. It's a shame because it worked perfectly in the past.

It can't be too long until we can run VM's on our phones and isolate all our apps from the main phone OS? This seems like a great need to be filled.

And how long would your battery last?

Re: Facebook uses location to suggest new friends

#58

Post by alistairSH »

anexprogrammer wrote: post #43
drcross wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook recently disabled their messenger platform on the website, when you click the messages tab it brings you directly to the app store to install their app. This means you have to use the App to message people. The app requires such egregious permissions that I absolutely refuse to install it. It's a shame because it worked perfectly in the past.

It still works, you just have to fight it steering you to the app store every step of the way. I had to borrow someone's phone 2 days ago to send a quick FB message and it took about 10x longer than it should due to it trying to hide the native interface "it's going away soon, install messenger".

Is this an Android vs iOS thing? The Facebook page on my iPhone works very similarly to the desktop page. It doesn't steer me to the app store for any features.

Re: Facebook uses location to suggest new friends

#59

Post by 9935c101ab17a66 »

danso wrote: post #36
alistairSH wrote: post #16

I don't understand why people use the Facebook native app at all. Their mobile website works quite well and should avoid many of the issues with the app (location sharing, battery drain, etc).

Because it offers a far superior user experience...for the times I find myself in self-loathing after checking Facebook for the nth time, at least I want to not be struggling with the interface. The thing with Facebook is that I use it when I know I want to give away information. For example, when I'm at an airport about to takeoff to an unfamiliar city but I'm not sure which of my casual friends (too casual to send…

If that use case makes sense to you, sure, do whatever you want. But that's such a niche thing, and such a trivial amount of effort to expend (Really? It's worth all the headaches so you don't have to search for your current location? Also: How does facebook know where you're going?). I really can't see that being worth it for basically everyone else.

Re: Facebook uses location to suggest new friends

#60

Post by 9935c101ab17a66 »

ulli wrote: post #8

Goddamned Facebook!! Creating environments filled with unintended consequences everyday of the week. There are so many untrained, misguided, semi-literate people in the world, who just get thrown into these environments totally unprepared. It literally sickens me. Sorry I woke up today morning to read this - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/salem/21-yr-old-woma... Parents get blamed. Police get blamed. Govts g…

If you don't think the result of this was intended by the people who doctored and posted the photos, you're naive. It's a huge stretch to pin deliberate harassment and incredibly strict cultural mores on facebook. I'm not saying no one is to blame, and that this should ever happen, but laying all the responsibility at the feet of facebook is naive and frankly duplicitous
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