Facebook's "People You May Know" feature is creepy as hell

[Wilhelm]

Is there a bigger misnomer in tech than Facebook's "People You May Know"? 

A more accurate name would probably be "acquaintances from high school you don't talk to anymore." Even a simple "WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?!" would be fitting.

Or maybe we should just call a spade a spade and label "People You May Know" what it really is: the perfect microcosm of everything that's wrong with Facebook.

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For the uninitiated, "People You May Know" is exactly what it sounds like: a Facebook tool that surfaces the profiles of other users the platform thinks you may have a connection with. The tool is available in two places — in a widget nestled in the middle of your news feed and in a subsection of your friends tab — meaning that wherever you see your friends, Facebook is there to nudge you with reminders of other people you can also add to your network.

But the question that remains is: What info is Facebook looking at to come up with those recommendations?

According to Facebook's help page, the suggestions come from some pretty common, surface-level data like mutual friends and school networks. Here's the full list:

 

Image: Facebook

Sure.

But here's a snapshot of who I see suggested in my own "People You May Know" section in addition to people in my network:

• A few people who I went on dates with over the years (no mutual connections, but I have their numbers in my phone, so sure)

• My co-worker's dad (only one mutual connection. Also WHAT THE HELL, FACEBOOK, NOW I CREEPILY KNOW INFORMATION ABOUT MY COLLEAGUES DAD. WHO ASKED FOR THIS?!)

• People who I follow on Instagram, who don't follow me back and we've never met in real life (no mutual connections)

• The inverse of the above point: People who follow me on Instagram, but I don't follow back and we've never met (no mutual connections)

• People who I have no mutual friends with and who have curiously incomplete profiles (i.e. no mutual contacts or shared groups/networks, based on the person's public information)

Of course, it's impossible to come to any type of definitive conclusions about the feature based on this type of anecdotal information, so Mashable reached out to Facebook to ask if the help page description "People You May Know" is still accurate and if the tool uses any other data to make suggestions beyond what's listed in the help page.

In response to our inquiry, a Facebook spokesperson said, "Confirming that the help center content is accurate and reflects the most common types of information that inform suggestions." 

That phrase "most common types" seems to be doing a lot of work here in that it signals that other, less common types of data are also at play. However, Facebook didn't respond to the two follow-up emails asking to clarify about other potential data sources like Instagram and phone contacts.

All of which is to say, there seems to be more than just "suggesting people in your network" factored into Facebook's "People You May Know" suggestions.

But what's actually going on here? Users may never know. The algorithm that governs the feature is a black box, a secret that Facebook holds onto tightly. Trying to crack the code yourself will just result in headaches and more questions.

Take for instance those suggestions that seem to be from your phone contacts. On first glance, it seems like Facebook is simply pulling contacts from your phone without your permission.

However, there a few things that may be happening here.

First, Facebook has a feature that allows users to automatically upload contact info from their phone to Facebook.

 

Image: Facebook

When I checked my Facebook app settings, because I, too, seem to be getting suggestions based on phone contacts, the feature was turned off. I then checked to see the list of contacts imported through Facebook (you can check here) and it said that there were no imported contacts and no invites sent.

 

Image: Facebook

And even if you have turned off the feature in the main Facebook app, what about Messenger?

 

Image: Facebook

I checked Messenger, and sure enough, the feature was enabled. And then I checked to see if contacts were imported from Messenger aaaannnddd... BINGO!

 

Image: Facebook

The thing is...on Messenger, the tool just says syncing your contacts will help you find people you know on Messenger. And the main Facebook help page, again, doesn't say anything about Messenger in "People You May Know" suggestions. 

The two services — Facebook and Messenger — may be merged on desktop, but on your phone, where Facebook is pulling the information, the services are standalone apps, requiring you to manage separate privacy settings. And Messenger has its own "suggested people" section. To the common user, Messenger seems like it's not a factor.

But — plot twist! — Messenger does, in fact, influence People You May Know suggestions, according to Facebook.

"Today, we use contacts uploaded to Facebook and Messenger to inform PYMK suggestions," Facebook spokesperson Matt Steinfeld told Gizmodo in 2017.

And that's only one of Facebook's assets. The company also owns Instagram, WhatsApp, and dozens of other services. But which services influence "People You May Know" suggestions? That's still unclear. 

At the end of the day, that point is also moot. Facebook doesn't even need YOU to input your info for the platform to collect data on you — the company can apparently use your friends' info to gather data about you too. "People You May Know suggestions may be based on contact information we receive from people and their friends. Sometimes this means that a friend or someone you know might upload contact information — like an email address or phone number — that we associate with you," Steinfeld told Gizmodo in the 2017 article.

Ultimately, to browse Facebook's "People You May Know" is to see a constant reminder that Facebook has more access to our personal information than you can even imagine.

And that's why the feature encapsulates everything that's wrong with Facebook.

"People You May Know," like a host of other Facebook features, is only able to make its suggestions because of the massive amounts of information the company has on each of its billions of users. It knows where we've lived, what schools we went to and when, where we've worked, who worked there with us, and more. And yet, in return, we know almost nothing about the algorithm that governs the feature, which makes it incredibly difficult for users to manage.

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It's exactly that type of power imbalance over our data that drove the #DeleteFacebook campaign and animated Mark Zuckerberg's congressional hearing where the Facebook CEO spoke to address concerns about privacy and the mismanagement of user data.

The "People You May Know" feature is just one of the platform's tools that seem straight out of your dystopian nightmares. In March, reports broke that political data firm Cambridge Analytica was able to collect personal information for more than 87 million Facebook users without those users' knowledge. That was an egregious breach, but users have also bristled at its expansive facial recognition features(which gets turned on by default), that time Facebook briefly tested broadcasting online activity statuses for users, and when Facebook tested individual search bars on user profiles. (There's also that persistent and unconfirmed rumor that Facebook is spying on you with its microphone — a rumor that Facebook has denied but people still seem to believe because of the targeted ads that users believe to reflect IRL conversations that users have).

So sure, Facebook's "People You May Know" may be helpful to some but there is one thing that's certain: is the perfect microcosm of Facebook's troubles.