How does facebook know who i may know?

[wilson]

I set up a page for my dog. I used my cell and my gf's email. I had no friends. I do not live near my job, yet my friends who I do not have in any contact list, appeared in my might know list. How? They live over 60 miles away and we never interact. I made no mention of my job.

[jjnn]

ancient aliens

[JohnnyLurg]

Facebook figured out who your friends were through your cell phone number.

[Robert]

A similar thing happen to me. I think my email was compromised (yahoo) and someone got my contacts and then facebook emailed me asking if I knew my contacts and want to set up an account. Nothing is private anymore!

[Joey]

Facebook has a rather advanced algorithm to find people you 'might' know.
The concept is called the "Social Graph" and that thing is scary as it links each and everyone is any possible way.

It seems like magic, but there's some logic behind it.

[john]

It's not hard for them to do that. You have (and your GF) provided them with enough information, including IP address(es) over time to enable FB to determine many possible "linkages". The private information you willingly gave FB allows them to create a huge data-mapping. Using FB messages is your worst avenue. People type all sorts of personal info in their FB messages which FB stores (possibly forever) in their massive data centers. They could eventually know more about you than you do by pulling in links that you have clicked on from facebook pages. You must have noticed when you click on a link it doesn't go direct to that link; it first gets added to their data stores, then goes to the true page. Sounds scary ... that's because it is !