How are FB's algorithms legal?

[Thedoctor]

I'm trying to understand how Facebook's algorithms aren't illegal in terms of privacy.

I recently created a business page for a side project I'm doing. In doing so, it forced me to create a personal page (which I used a fake name) as well as required me to provide a phone number. To be clear, I just got this page up and running about a week ago. I made it and that was it. I did not add any friends, or search anything on Facebook. All I did was create the page - basically just so I knew the name I wanted was available. I did not do anything else that particular day.

Tonight, I was logging on to add some content to the page, and was surprised to see some of the "people you may know" on the front page when you log in. The one that got my attention was a picture of a guy I met when I was in China. At first, I didn't think much of it until I stopped to wonder how the hell Facebook could possibly know I was acquainted with him. Again, there's absolutely nothing on this Facebook page yet. Both the business and personal one it forced me to create are totally blank. It turns out that I happened to save that guy's number in my phone, and this is likely how FB knew. Although I did provide them with the phone number, it seems rather invasive that it could be used like that.

Since I was curious, I scrolled through other people I may know. I knew pretty much all of them. Some were other people who were saved in my phone. But here's some highlights of people who were not saved in my phone:

-a guy from a job I had over 3 years ago
-a chick that I slept with a few times about 2 years ago (and she couldn't have been fb stalking me - I'm not on there)
-a guy from a deal I worked on about a year and a half ago. The only way my number was involved was that I had texted him a bit to hammer out some details. The texts were still saved, in my old phone, that I haven't used in almost a year. To be clear, the number was not saved. Just a thread with maybe 10 texts.
-the creepiest ones were a couple clients I had worked with at my last job. They never texted, we only ever emailed thru my old work email. It was never attached to my phone number.

It seems a little ridiculous they can use your phone number that way. Especially since it was a requirement to make the page. But really, I probably would have looked past that. But I would love to know how their algorithm functions if they are able to get info on clients I only ever emailed, on an email I no longer have access to.

So here's another reason to add to the long list of why you should delete your social media presence.

And if someone could shed some light on how this is legal, I am extremely curious.

-John

 

[Drck]

As far as I read online, FB tracks your activities even if you sign off. Most likely you may have two or more FB accounts, you log to one of them, and when you switch FB accounts from the same computer or IP address, FB figures out that it is still you...

I recently created a fake FB account, logged in and checked my real one. After couple of days most of the people I have in my real account started to pop up under the fake account as people you may know...

Wouldn't be surprised at all if FB cooperates closely with government agencies...

Anyway, either way FB and other social media is just BS, useless time consumers, turn it off...

 

[Seppuku]

For info, I was surprised to see my FB mobile app suggesting me to post my most recent pictures taken with the mobile. It's the FB app showing me my last three pics and suggesting me to post some of them!

It means that my pictures in my phone are accessed by the FB app without my permission. They could be as well uploaded on the FB servers without me knowing it.

Talking about a breach in privacy. Who knows what these damn phones and apps are doing in the background.

If possible it's best to opt out of all these social network junk trojan horses.

Seppuku

 

[OldSelf]

Tips to live a more private life, in my opinion. You never know if fame or power hits you and you've got some dirty, dirty (hopefully, literally ) things to hide.

Delete the account on your old phone. Sell the old phone. Get a new phone. NEVER use FB again. I find FB to be very imposing and the fact that I have to "Log in with Facebook" to reach my level 900 Candy Crush account only further irks me, because I'd rather play my game that I invested so much time into and simply never use the FB app.

It also helps with girls, at least it did for me. When I was fresh, I was more lenient on my boundaries and would accept facebook as an option. After deleting it and reading how Chase balls-ily tells girls FB's no good to him, it was either numbers or instant dates!

I find that social media only creates a false image of one's self, creates validation addiction, and is totally unnatural - putting you back on your goal with girls, life, and self in general.

ST

 

[Chase]

John-

Facebook spends a great deal of time and money on lobbying. It also serves as an extension of the U.S. and other governments' intelligence / surveillance arms, to an extent, much of the same way all the major telephone companies have / do.

There's also a kind of "legal until it's legislated out or challenged in court" rule that happens with consumer-facing businesses, where companies will do all manner of different things until there's legal precedent that outlaws it, or there's enough of a public outcry against the behavior that Congress signs laws against it.

In this case, this is a new technological frontier (an app pulling data about you off your cell phone), without many laws around it, and it's further obfuscated by Facebook's framing of it (i.e., that it is to "improve your experience"; from the corporate side, it's really about keeping you on the platform longer by getting you connected to more people on it, as well as being able to serve you up more targeted ads you're more likely to click on and generate ad revenue for Facebook).

So, in this case, I'd offer it's a combination of hand-in-glove military/industrial complex stuff, Wild West technological frontier stuff, and fuzzy overreach clouded by language obfuscation. I wouldn't be surprised to see some kind of EFF law suit at some point, though they'd need to prove this behavior from Facebook is harmful and not just annoying if they want a stronger case, and that might be hard to do (what's the harm? And can you really prove Facebook is to blame?).

Chase

 

[Thedoctor]

As far as I read online, FB tracks your activities even if you sign off. Most likely you may have two or more FB accounts, you log to one of them, and when you switch FB accounts from the same computer or IP address, FB figures out that it is still you...

Nope, I don't have any other account.

In this case, this is a new technological frontier (an app pulling data about you off your cell phone), without many laws around it, and it's further obfuscated by Facebook's framing of it (i.e., that it is to "improve your experience"; from the corporate side, it's really about keeping you on the platform longer by getting you connected to more people on it, as well as being able to serve you up more targeted ads you're more likely to click on and generate ad revenue for Facebook).

Yeah, those targeted ads are rather creepy as well. Maybe it's just that I always valued my own privacy that I never understood the fascination with a lot of social media. It's crazy how a lot of people got so worked up as we lost more and more privacy as technology improved, but we're probably the biggest culprits. With the invention and acceptance of smartphones and social media, we've essentially mortgaged our privacy in return for slight conveniences.

-John