I believe this is akin to the way in which gmail scans emails for keywords. I may not use gmail, but if I email a friend who does, then Gmail can scan the email I've written. Comparatively, if I don't allow Facebook to access my email list, but I have a friend who does and I'm on theirs, then Facebook will make the connection. In both cases, only one user has agreed to the terms. This seems problematic. I believe, particularly in the Facebook example, that it gives other people rights over our information that I'm not so sure they should have. -Stacy Blasiola UW-Milwaukee Graduate Student Media Studies Marco Toledo Bastos <herrcafe@gmail.com> wrote: Anders, This also got me thinking. It all started a few years ago when my hairdresser, who I went to once, and who has sent me a few emails, turned up as a FB suggestion. We didn't have any friends in common and I most certainly have NOT allowed FB to go thru my Gmail contacts (or any other account). This all had happened once before when FB suggested another person with whom I sure shared no friends whatsoever. Since I'm dead sure I haven't given Facebook permission to contact my Gmail account and FB sure isn't allowed to mine my cache, I was ready to go paranoid (seemed like Facebook was stealing my Gmail contacts). But after a few emails to friends and nerds of all stripes, we came up with the conclusion that it was the hairdresser who allowed FB to collect *her* contact info. That's how FB knew we had been in contact in a given moment. Bottom line: there are only two ways FB could have gotten that info from me. Either by mining my Chrome cache, and I refuse to consider this possibility, or breaking into Googles's office in Mountain View, since Gmail was the only place where I had that info stored. So getting back to your question, the kid might not know his uncle's e-mail, but my two cent is that the uncle's contact list sure includes the kid's name and/or his e-mail. Either way, this is not good. But it is the future, and the future is here. []s MTB _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/