I am a fan of Social Media, and am a true believer in that it helps network and grow your social life both on a personal level as well as a business level.
A few months back I noticed that I was getting friend suggestions and I had never encountered these people before. It was sort of like a dream. It’s said that when you dream of someone that you dont know or don’t recognize, you have at some point in your life come across this person to some extent. I felt that was the same way. I started realizing that my privacy was being invaded a few weeks ago when I was talking with my ex over the phone about some relationship issues they were having. About 1 hour passes and I logged into Facebook to discover that I was being directed to connect with their current boyfriend. No where should this have come up unless FaceBook was eavesdropping on my call and knew exactly who I was speaking about.
I quickly dismissed it as a coincidence and did not think anythnig else of it. Until, that is, just last night. About 9 months ago I used to work at a paint shop widely known in the SoCal region. My friend there who was the lead tinter was not (and still is not) on social media. He hates it and wants nothing to do with it. I was watching television and decided to write a status. I was looking at the suggested friends because I noticed that FaceBook was suggesting an old high school teacher which was great because I had wondered how they were doing. I noticed an image from another friend suggestion, and said to myself “is that Biran?” I clicked on the profile to discover it was his wife. Remind you: Brian is not on social media at all, never has been and never will be. There should be absolutely no reason why she is being suggested to me as a friend.
This type of event is worrisome to me for a few reasons. The first is I have never met, have no connection to or relation with Brian’s wife and do not see (under any circumstance) how Facebook made that connection from when I worked at the paint shop with Brian.
The second reason this is worrisome to me is you cant help but think how FaceBook made that connection. It’s in a sense impeding on your privacy if somehow FaceBook made this connection using infomration from my own life to make that conection. His wife does not work at the same paint store or company, so the connection there is false.
The third reason is there should be no reason for Facebook to make these types of suggestions to people. They are using information about you to make connections with people who I might not even want to connect with.
I doubt the ethics of Facebook with this feature and believe that my privacy was invaded to an extent beyond what Facebook should allow. I think FaceBook is stepping over a very fine line. For that: I leave FaceBook and will never go back.
