How did Facebook know?

skipro33

skipro33

Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Joined
Sep 24, 2011
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Location
Placerville
I recently sold an off road motorcycle in the local craigs list here in California. The buyer paid with cash and the only paperwork filled out was the Pink Slip, AKA the title. Attached to the title was a form I mailed in to the DMV in order to clear myself of any liability in case said vehicle was involved somehow with a law violation.

I've never met this man who bought my motorcycle and he lives about 2 hours away by car. I didn't even remember his name. Not until Facebook posted him as a 'Friend' suggestion. I recognized his face as well as a distinct arm sleeve tattoo. I recalled the name once I saw it under his photo. My question is; how the heck did Facebook but this guy and me together as friend suggestions?!
 
Just guessing:

  • With the way information is traded, the buyer updated his motorcycle insurance. His insurance company has the registration info for the bike, which is tied to both you and him, so FB connected the dots.
  • Both of your locations were tracked by your phones, and put you two together in the same place and time, with no one else, when you sold the bike.
  • CL's confidential email system was used to sell personal info to FB.
  • The buyer looked you up on FB, and FB made a friend recommendation based on this.
 
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are you "always" logged in to facebook? if so, and if he is also - and a lot of people are by default - FB saw your CL transaction.
 
  • The buyer looked you up on FB, and FB made a friend recommendation based on this.
Click to expand...
My wife suggested this. Checking his facebook page, he hasn't posted anything (public) in over a year. He didn't seem like the facebook kind of guy to me, but what do I know?

I gotta be more than careful these days! With this technology, why aren't more crimes solved? And with this technology, why are relatives long dead going on 5 years still getting solicitations for charities? Ha!
 
Aerides said:
are you "always" logged in to facebook? if so, and if he is also - and a lot of people are by default - FB saw your CL transaction.
Click to expand...

I would think this.
FB tracks what people do all over the internet, even when they are not using FB.

The new Mozilla browser has some container system to prevent (some) of that tracking by FB.
 
Sunset said:
I would think this.
FB tracks what people do all over the internet, even when they are not using FB.

The new Mozilla browser has some container system to prevent (some) of that tracking by FB.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm trying to figure out how something that didn't involve the internet other than an anonymous listing on craigslist from my part and an e-mail reply from the buyers part back to my anonymous e-mail from craigslist.

Somehow both our privacy's were compromised when facebook somehow got involved and suggested to me that I should add him as a friend. Did either of our e-mails sell that info to facebook for example, without our consent? Could we both have somehow given consent that our facebook accounts could be accessed from some outside communique unaffiliated with either of our facebook accounts?

I'd love to just drop facebook over this, but it's my primary way of staying in touch with my family. We use facebook messenger to send group messages, photos and make video calls with it. Besides, if not facebook then who or what and why would I assume this new communications source would be any better at respecting my privacy and not try to pair me up with some anonymous person I happened to have a cash transaction with via internet?

Seriously, how do criminals NOT get caught when this sort of technology exists? If this had been a stolen motorcycle or the buyer decided to murder me when he met at my house, would law enforcement been as quick to deduce that there is some sort of relationship between me and this stranger?
 
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skipro33 said:
My wife suggested this. Checking his facebook page, he hasn't posted anything (public) in over a year. He didn't seem like the facebook kind of guy to me, but what do I know?
Click to expand...
A lot of people post with privacy set to only their friends being able to view, so you wouldn't see those posts if you aren't friends. Plus, the theory was that he merely looked up your profile on FB, which doesn't require him or you to post at all. I could see someone doing that to see what your face looks like before meeting you for the transaction, or maybe to even see if you had posted complaints about your damned motorcycle breaking down again.
 
MichaelB said:
My guess is also phone number. That is a critical item FB uses to identify and build a profile.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Yes, we did exchange phone numbers and called. My phone is included with a 'landline' via Comcast/Xfinity on my internet/cable TV plan.

He had a cell phone of some unknown carrier.

So somehow xfinity and/or his carrier sent our phone numbers to facebook, who has these on record and associated with each of our corresponding facebook accounts is what you are saying. Amazing! I have all of 12 'friends' on facebook. All are immediate family on my or my wife's side; brothers, sisters, kids, grand kids, and their spouses if they have them. Just the 12. I don't want ANY friend suggestions. I wonder if that's a parameter I can set within my FB account.
 
Thanks to you both for the links. I've got some work to do. Had no idea about the privacy issues with FB running this deep into other aspects of my day to day internet usage.
 
I think it's as simple as him looking you up on FB. There are tons of people that never publish anything on FB.... doesn't mean they don't FB stalk a person they're going to be doing business with. It happens to me occasionally... I'll meet some random person and they learn my first and last name. No phone numbers exchanged, then they show up as a recommendation.



Just know that if you look someone up on FB, your mug might show up on their recommendation list :)
 
Interesting to read all of these various theories, which are certainly within the realm of possibility.

However I came here to write exactly what sengsational wrote. It's widely assumed that most suggested friends on facebook are people who have looked at your profile. So I am guessing this dude looked you up. BTW, if I were making a transaction with a stranger off of craigslist and I knew their name, I would 100% look them up on fb too (and any other social media)
 
He didn't even have to go to Facebook to look you up. If you put anybody's name into Google search, usually some of the images and the second or third link come from FB. Once you click on those, then if you're logged in to FB yourself, you'll be suggested as a friend to that person.

Try opening an Incognito or InPrivate window in your browser, going to google.com and typing your own name. See what comes up and how much of it goes back to FB.

Also, there's no reason to assume your Craigslist posting was anonymous. If you used the same browser that you use for other websites, you have tracking cookies. Craigslist has the same tracking cookies. So now the data aggregators know the person with that cookie ID has an interest in off road motorcycles. You'll be seeing ads for those everywhere if you don't have an ad blocker.
 
skipro33 said:
Ruh Roh....
Walking down memory lane and looking up high school crushes might come back to bite me in the ass? Ha!
Click to expand...
I was just thinking the same thing! But I have FB friends from both high schools I went to, so they may be friends of friends (which is another common way they suggest friends), or maybe even friends of friends of friends.

Look at it the other way, maybe they will send you a friend request, so you'll find out maybe they knew you after all. And maybe it could even turn into more! There was someone here on er-org who hooked back up with either a HS girl friend or maybe just a crush, and I think got married. I don't remember how they ran into each other again. HS reunion, maybe?
 
A newly released Netflix documentary "The Social Dilemma" provides a pretty good viewpoint about Facebook and similar software. I found it very interesting. The documentary includes numerous techies voicing their concerns but it also includes some dialog on the positives of such technology.
 
He probably looked up your profile. I look up people's profiles all the time on Facebook and didn't know they would get a people you may now thing because of it. Now, I do.

Also, if he has your phone number in his phone and updates his contacts automatically to FB then that would do it. (You may not think he is active but that can be hard to determine. Some people who solely do FB because some group on FB is important for them to be a member of so they use FB just for that group.
 
Facebook messenger app on your phone is an open invitation to view your cyber habits. Even worse, if your phone syncs to any other devices you have or talks to a router in your home, those devices may also be exposed.

I haven't read the fine print yet on FBs redesign but it looks to me as though the full browser version of FB may be moving towards using the same interface messenger does. I'm betting that privacy changes will follow to match messenger. Data is the most valuable commodity in the world, imo. FB is a for profit company.
 
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My brother recommended "The Social Dilemma" the other day.
 
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