Facebook Does It Again!!

[+ Gar1eth]

In May it sent me an email with suggestions for people I might know. Most of them seemed to be people that were friends with other people I know. But there was one handsome guy in his late 30's or early 40's from Texas that I didn't recognize. I looked at his feed but didn't recognize him.

 

Today he showed up on my Facebook feed where it offers you suggestions for people you might know. I looked through his Facebook page again. He's athletic/muscular but not ripped. Well this time it clicked. He's a former escort from Houston that didn't escort too terribly long. I lost contact with him long ago. The last contact was probably back in 2006 or 2007. Somehow Facebook trolled through my email accounts on my phone and found him.

 

Gman

[+ WmClarke]

Yeah, the Facebook phone app definitely snoops your contacts and tries to match you up on FB.

 

I had at least three hookups (from Craigslist) whose numbers were in my phone contacts show up in FB's "you might know" feature.

 

Freaked me out the first time it happened. But I never give FB my phone number so the reverse can't happen to me.

[liubit]

Scary..

 

The e-mail account and the phone that I use for "escort" purposes are in no way linked or related to my "normal" Facebook account. I also have a second FB profile with a different identity, a totally separate e-mail, and no phone linked to it. That is the one that I use in my "naughty" activities. I don't pretend to be totally safe with this method, but I do hope that it limits the privacy intrusions.

[Nvr2Thick]

Everything about the Internet on computers and smartphones lacks privacy, by design. Everything you do in search engines, your e-mail, your browser history, your application data and contacts, etc. is open for web pages and apps to collect. I researched window A/C units last summer, and now every web page and portal offers up A/C ads. I started hunting for an old college friend via Google, and now two people with the same name show up in my friend recommendations. A guy I hooked up with from Craigslist once shows up in my friend recommendations even though his e-mail address was blocked by the CL mail redirector. I sent a few e-mails to family making sure that someone brought a crock pot on vacation, and now I get crock pot targeted ads.

 

One of the more annoying ones from the Facebook phone app lately is that it proactively uploads pictures without asking you. I took a bunch of pictures of things I'm selling in someone's garage sale, and the next time I opened Facebook it generated an album of those pics and asked me if I wanted to post it. I took a bunch of vacation pics of family and the FP app did the same thing. They've gone from assuming rights to every pic that you upload, to assuming rights to every pic you take on your phone.

[+ Funguy]

I think there is a phone feature when you first open an app where it asks if you want to grant access to various areas on your phone, eg photos, contacts, location, etc. I always "deny access." Facebook is one of them. And other apps ask for access to your Facebook page.

[AdamSmith]

Facebook's friend suggestions are getting really intrusive. For me it keeps suggesting people in several highly inappropriate categories:

1. Business colleagues. If they saw my FB feeds, I would never get another red centavo from many of them.
   
2. Long-retired escorts, including some from, shall we say, fairly sketchy advertising modes. How DOES Facebook know?
   
3. My ex-husband! Over and over.
   

How do you tell it, Enough already?!

[marylander1940]

In May it sent me an email with suggestions for people I might know. Most of them seemed to be people that were friends with other people I know. But there was one handsome guy in his late 30's or early 40's from Texas that I didn't recognize. I looked at his feed but didn't recognize him.

 

Today he showed up on my Facebook feed where it offers you suggestions for people you might know. I looked through his Facebook page again. He's athletic/muscular but not ripped. Well this time it clicked. He's a former escort from Houston that didn't escort too terribly long. I lost contact with him long ago. The last contact was probably back in 2006 or 2007. Somehow Facebook trolled through my email accounts on my phone and found him.

 

Gman

 

May I recommend you have an email for your family and friends, another email for your job, and a 3rd email for escorts and hookups?

 

Also 1 phone for family, friends and your job and a google voice phone for escorts and hookups wouldn't be a bad idea.

[Andrew]

It's scary. Especially to those of us who may remember Webcrawler.

[OneFinger]

May I recommend you have an email for your family and friends, another email for your job, and a 3rd email for escorts and hookups?

 

Also 1 phone for family, friends and your job and a google voice phone for escorts and hookups wouldn't be a bad idea.

 

That's exactly what I do. I'm very protective of my personal identity.

[+ ArVaGuy]

Just as I was considering finally considering joining Facebook, you all point out the very reasons why I've avoided it like the plague. The spam I get from Linked In is bad enough, but this Facebook invasion of privacy is horrendous. And people do it willingly without regard to consequences. Is the fear of missing out really that acute in this country? Facebook seems like one gwad awful time suck if you ask me. But maybe that's because I'm middle aged and slowly becoming a curmudgeon.

[+ Gar1eth]

May I recommend you have an email for your family and friends, another email for your job, and a 3rd email for escorts and hookups?

 

I do have separate emails. The only thing that I can think of is that Facebook, as I said in my original post, must have trolled through my phone (which has multiple email accounts on it) to find the email account that I used to use to contact the former escort. It also must mean that the former escort uses the same email account to sign onto Facebook that he used to use to contact me.

 

Also 1 phone for family, friends and your job and a google voice phone for escorts and hookups wouldn't be a bad idea.

 

When I used to hire, I did use another number than my main number. In fact I frequently use an alternate number for my rare hook-ups.

 

Gman

[marylander1940]

I do have separate emails. The only thing that I can think of is that Facebook, must have trolled through my phone (which has multiple email accounts on it) to find the email account that I used to use to contact the former escort. It also must mean that the former escort uses the same email account to sign onto Facebook that he used to use to contact me.

 

You made the mistake of checking your email (escort/hookups email) through your phone and that's how the "linked" you... I guess.

 

Have you applied recently to jobs that require a higher screening/security like TSA?

 

 

When I used to hire, I did use another number than my main number. In fact I frequently use an alternate number for my rare hook-ups.

 

Gman

 

We all learn things the tough way, you seem to be very knowledgeable of all this subject.

[Nvr2Thick]

I think there is a phone feature when you first open an app where it asks if you want to grant access to various areas on your phone, eg photos, contacts, location, etc. I always "deny access." Facebook is one of them. And other apps ask for access to your Facebook page.

 

Yeah, but there are times when I want to upload photos to Facebook. It used to be strictly an active function where we'd chose the upload function and select pictures for upload. Now the app proactively uploads. I can turn off the Facebook app's access to photos on the phone, but then I have to find it in settings and turn it back on, and the off again.

[+ saminseattle]

I was recently at a social gathering with a group I hadn’t seen in years. Lots of folks were taking pictures with their old friends; I took a few myself. Afterwards, Facebook invited me to download its app, “Moments,” I think it’s called, so that we could all share the pictures we’d taken with each other. Sounds pretty convenient and handy, right? But apparently the app also goes through all the pictures on your phone, uses super accurate facial recognition software to organize them, stores them on Facebook servers somewhere, and allows anyone in the group to invite other people to see the pictures. For me, the convenience of all this stuff is starting to be overcome by creepiness.

[TruHart1]

Facebook discretion is non-existent. Just today, I got one of those "people you may know" messages from them. I could not believe it, there, staring me in the face was a very famous escort/pornstar with a link to his personal (not escort) Facebook page! Since I do not use a smartphone for my hobby, the only possible way it could have made this connection is through his escort email address in my Outlook address book. Now I do have a separate FB account for following private escort FB pages I am invited to friend by the few special escorts who have become friends in real life and a separate FB page for family and other friends. I guess I should be thankful this particular message from FB was on the FB account I use for escorts!!!

 

TruHart1

[liubit]

May I recommend you have an email for your family and friends, another email for your job, and a 3rd email for escorts and hookups?......Also 1 phone for family, friends and your job and a google voice phone for escorts and hookups wouldn't be a bad idea.

Exactly. I have four separate e-mail accounts: one for family and friends, one for escorts and other gay-related activities (such as this board, or porn sites), a third one for "temporary" stuff (such as airline reservations, or people to whom I don't want to give my primary mail), and a fourth for work. I also have two mobiles: one of them is exclusively reserved to escort related activities. I know, I know, it kind of sounds like Sybil's multiple personalities, but it helps me keep things tidy and conveniently separate.

 

Facebook discretion is non-existent.... Now I do have a separate FB account for following private escort FB pages I am invited to friend by the few special escorts who have become friends in real life and a separate FB page for family and other friends.

Bingo! Just like @TruHart1, I have a separate FB account for escort pages (working boys use FB extensively in Prague). It is NOT linked to any of my phones...

 

We live in a world where privacy has become a very rare commodity...

[gezellig4u]

I am afraid that privacy is a quaint relic.