Facebook oddity

theNude · 9 Aug 2011 at 22:23

So I just logged into facebook and it came up with friends to suggest at the top which seems new.

What freaked me out is it is suggesting my old land lord as a friend, he has no shared friends, i never have emailed him, facebooked him or anything like that before.

how does it know that i know him?

Raymond Lin · 9 Aug 2011 at 22:25

You may have emailed him at some point with your Facebook signed up email address

georges · 9 Aug 2011 at 22:26

How would Facebook know that though?

Raymond Lin · 9 Aug 2011 at 22:27

georges said:
How would Facebook know that though?

I think Facebook can access your address book.

darubio · 9 Aug 2011 at 22:29

true that

Rroff · 9 Aug 2011 at 22:29

IIRC if you've used an email addy connected to facebook for MSN Messenger and possibly other services it seems to be able to retrieve your friends list from those or from public list on live or something and then appears to do some cross linking with friends lists of friends on there and tries to link them to people on facebook by matching registered details.

MikeHunt79 · 9 Aug 2011 at 22:30

georges said:
How would Facebook know that though?

Magnets.

Seriously Facebook is scary with how much it seems to be able to get links about you...

Squark · 9 Aug 2011 at 22:42

Facebook is stalking you

Deleted member 77746 · 9 Aug 2011 at 22:46

theDude said:
So I just logged into facebook and it came up with friends to suggest at the top which seems new.

What freaked me out is it is suggesting my old land lord as a friend, he has no shared friends, i never have emailed him, facebooked him or anything like that before.

how does it know that i know him?

You do no Facebook is connected to many services and it knows everything about you?

DJ_Martin · 9 Aug 2011 at 22:54

As this is a facebook thread, you should go to account>account settings>Security and at the bottom it tells you where you are currently logged in from. Mine said London earlier as apparently the police are going through everyone's facebook accounts. Happened to loads of people on my friends list too when they looked.

Jono · 9 Aug 2011 at 22:57

Contacts list from your phone, if you've ever used it to go on facebook.

Deleted member 77746 · 9 Aug 2011 at 23:01

DJmartin said:
Mine said London earlier as apparently the police are going through everyone's facebook accounts.

You got source?

DJ_Martin · 9 Aug 2011 at 23:03

iDroid84 said:
You got source?

I don't and it has disappeared now but I asked someone about it and they said that it happens all the time and is most likely just apps being connected to my account as opposed to the police. Probably just a rumour.

Deleted member 77746 · 9 Aug 2011 at 23:05

DJmartin said:
I don't and it has disappeared now but I asked someone about it and they said that it happens all the time and is most likely just apps being connected to my account as opposed to the police. Probably just a rumour.

The police can access it, I asked about it as a right to privacy. They will only access it if they feel that something is going on and they hear reports about you doing something.

DJ_Martin · 9 Aug 2011 at 23:07

iDroid84 said:
The police can access it, I asked about it as a right to privacy. They will only access it if they feel that something is going on and they hear reports about you doing something.

Well I can confirm I have not sent any messages about riots :rolleyes:

I guess I won't know now. I never really thought to copy the source code or even take a screenshot, just thought it was interesting.

Rroff · 9 Aug 2011 at 23:10

DJmartin said:
As this is a facebook thread, you should go to account>account settings>Security and at the bottom it tells you where you are currently logged in from. Mine said London earlier as apparently the police are going through everyone's facebook accounts. Happened to loads of people on my friends list too when they looked.

Location isn't accurate - facebook can only "discover" the geolocation of your gateway onto the internet so it will generally be either somewhere like London, Manchester, Brighton, etc. and is not actually the location you logged in from.

DJ_Martin · 9 Aug 2011 at 23:14

Rroff said:
Location isn't accurate - facebook can only "discover" the geolocation of your gateway onto the internet so it will generally be either somewhere like London, Manchester, Brighton, etc. and is not actually the location you logged in from.

Well it now only has one place, where I am right now and it says "Barry". This seems quite accurate to me. Maybe if it was Cardiff I would understand but Barry is quite specific which would conflict with what you have said. :confused:

Rroff · 9 Aug 2011 at 23:18

DJmartin said:
Well it now only has one place, where I am right now and it says "Barry". This seems quite accurate to me. Maybe if it was Cardiff I would understand but Barry is quite specific which would conflict with what you have said.

Are you accessing it via a mobile device with geolocation enabled? think some of the apps can give a more accurate fix with mobile devices. From a fixed broadband connection it can't get a more accurate fix than the geolocation "discovered" from your ISP which is usually the gateway location.

DJ_Martin · 9 Aug 2011 at 23:24

Rroff said:
Are you accessing it via a mobile device with geolocation enabled? think some of the apps can give a more accurate fix with mobile devices. From a fixed broadband connection it can't get a more accurate fix than the geolocation "discovered" from your ISP which is usually the gateway location.

Oh yeah, it's probably my phone

[FnG]magnolia · 9 Aug 2011 at 23:42

Wait, is Barry a real place? I thought it was made up for Gavin and Stacey. Mind = blown