It’s a given that Facebook knows more about us than we would care to think about. Not only do they know everything about you that you have fed into their site, but they also know about interactions you’ve made on sites where you use your Facebook credentials to log in. As a matter of fact, any social media site that we participate heavily on has mounds of data about everything we do and everyone we connect with.
The difference is, Facebook tends to show it off a little more than others. Although their intention isn’t to make users feel creeped out, it’s hard to not feel that way every once and awhile.
From time to time, you hear stories about strange instances on Facebook that reveal the kind of data they keep track of. For example, there was a man that had the sensation of seeing a ghost when he logged in one day. It was a girl that he had had a one night stand with when he was much younger, and the encounter resulted in a pregnancy. They decided to end the pregnancy in secret, and never saw each other again. They had no mutual friends, and they lived in separate towns. All of the sudden, many years later, Facebook was suggesting her as a friend.
Now, whether or not the story is true is up for debate, but it’s a totally plausible scenario. Facebook doesn’t show you who visits your profile, but there’s a strong likelihood that they keep track of it. If the story above is true, this woman probably showed up as a suggested friend because she had searched for him and visited his profile at some point.
This week, it was announced that Facebook would begin suggesting guests for events that are created on the site.
Once again, it’s great in theory, but if it’s anything like the suggested friends section, it will probably result in strange suggestions that just give us the creeps.
If I could “suggest” one thing to Mark and the gang at Facebook headquarters, it would be this: We all know that you have enough information to hold the entire world hostage, but we don’t like to be reminded of it. Ignorance is bliss.