How does Facebook find friends?
Dear all, does anyone understand the Facebook friend suggestions algorithm? Last night, my stepson joined Facebook. Immediately, it suggested he be friends with his mother, his grandfather, and his granduncle. How could Facebook know they were related? They had no friends in common, and didn't share friends-of-friends either. His last name is common in Norway (and his granduncle has a different name). He didn't enter any phone number or postal address. He used his gmail account when he joined Facebook, but did not allow the book to search his e-mail contacts (and he doesn't know his uncle's e-mail address). Does anyone understand how Facebook pulls this trick? --anders -- Anders Fagerjord, dr.art. Associate professor, Head of Studies Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo P.O. Box 1093 Blindern N-0317 OSLO Norway http://www.media.uio.no http://fagerjord.no
It is either pure magic...or Facebook uses his e-mail contacts! Although he did not allow Facebook to forward friendship requests, Facebook still reads the adresses and builds up suggestions! Thats the way I see it! Daniel Tilly Oliveira Lisbon-Portugal On Fri, Sep 24, 2010 at 7:14 AM, Anders Fagerjord < anders.fagerjord@media.uio.no> wrote:
Dear all,
does anyone understand the Facebook friend suggestions algorithm?
Last night, my stepson joined Facebook. Immediately, it suggested he be friends with his mother, his grandfather, and his granduncle.
How could Facebook know they were related? They had no friends in common, and didn't share friends-of-friends either. His last name is common in Norway (and his granduncle has a different name). He didn't enter any phone number or postal address.
He used his gmail account when he joined Facebook, but did not allow the book to search his e-mail contacts (and he doesn't know his uncle's e-mail address).
Does anyone understand how Facebook pulls this trick?
--anders
-- Anders Fagerjord, dr.art. Associate professor, Head of Studies
Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo P.O. Box 1093 Blindern N-0317 OSLO Norway
http://www.media.uio.no http://fagerjord.no
_______________________________________________ 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
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-- Deh. [+Sol]
It's magic....not black magic, or dark magic -- but Bit Magic(tm)!! :) I suspect it uses the email contacts and/or user names to cross-match recommendations. LinkedIn/Twitter seems to use such an algorithm/system to find out who you might want to connect with -- ie, a degrees-of-separation thing. Frankly, I find that a bit unsettling at times; I was trying to set up a Twitter feed for my department's use later this year --- and to my surprise, within 5 minutes of registering, I had friends following me because my name (not email) was in their contact lists elsewhere. The lesson? If you want to reserve a Twitter account for future use and keep it stealthy as part of a larger PR rollout, don't use your real name or email addy when registering. You can always change it later when you launch. :) -rick On Sep 24, 2010, at 07:39 , Daniel Oliveira wrote:
It is either pure magic...or Facebook uses his e-mail contacts!
Although he did not allow Facebook to forward friendship requests, Facebook still reads the adresses and builds up suggestions!
Thats the way I see it!
Daniel Tilly Oliveira Lisbon-Portugal
On Fri, Sep 24, 2010 at 7:14 AM, Anders Fagerjord < anders.fagerjord@media.uio.no> wrote:
Dear all,
does anyone understand the Facebook friend suggestions algorithm?
Last night, my stepson joined Facebook. Immediately, it suggested he be friends with his mother, his grandfather, and his granduncle.
How could Facebook know they were related? They had no friends in common, and didn't share friends-of-friends either. His last name is common in Norway (and his granduncle has a different name). He didn't enter any phone number or postal address.
He used his gmail account when he joined Facebook, but did not allow the book to search his e-mail contacts (and he doesn't know his uncle's e-mail address).
Does anyone understand how Facebook pulls this trick?
--anders
-- Anders Fagerjord, dr.art. Associate professor, Head of Studies
Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo P.O. Box 1093 Blindern N-0317 OSLO Norway
http://www.media.uio.no http://fagerjord.no
_______________________________________________ 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
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-- Deh. [+Sol] _______________________________________________ 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
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one should in this context also remember the political economy of facebook: it collects information about users from other sources in order to better target its advertisements and to commodify and economically exploit the users. therefore it's privacy policy says for example: "We may institute programs with advertising partners and other websites in which they share information with us". the policy also says: "We use your profile information, the addresses you import through our contact importers, and other relevant information, to help you connect with your friends, including making suggestions to you and other users that you connect with on Facebook". The formulation "and other relevant information" is so general, it can be everything, even a database purchased somewhere that contains personal information. Which information Facebook exactly holds about a user is intransparent, nobody knows - except the Facebook Big Brother... This is not not magic - it's capitalism. Best, Christian
Dear all,
does anyone understand the Facebook friend suggestions algorithm?
Last night, my stepson joined Facebook. Immediately, it suggested he be friends with his mother, his grandfather, and his granduncle.
How could Facebook know they were related? They had no friends in common, and didn't share friends-of-friends either. His last name is common in Norway (and his granduncle has a different name). He didn't enter any phone number or postal address.
He used his gmail account when he joined Facebook, but did not allow the book to search his e-mail contacts (and he doesn't know his uncle's e-mail address).
Does anyone understand how Facebook pulls this trick?
--anders
-- Anders Fagerjord, dr.art. Associate professor, Head of Studies
Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo P.O. Box 1093 Blindern N-0317 OSLO Norway
http://www.media.uio.no http://fagerjord.no
_______________________________________________ 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/
-- Deh. [+Sol] _______________________________________________ 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
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-- - - - Christian Fuchs Unified Theory of Information Research Group christian.fuchs@uti.at http://www.uti.at Personal: http://fuchs.uti.at NetPolitics Blog: http://fuchs.uti.at/blog
It may have been that it initially scanned based on very basic information like last name and current city. First wave may have then included ppl like the mother and father. In subsequent algorithms it may have scanned those identified in first wave for shared friends- so it possibly identified the granduncle based on information like the mother and father (etc) have this shared friend, the granduncle. Hence, these ppl get suggested as possible friends in a shared network. Plus, FB is known for devious ways around accessing private information. That's my educated, non-expert guess. Best, Nora Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing, there is a field. I will meet you there ~Rumi
I'd guess that its first scan picks up people with the same IP address, and a second scan picks up the friends of those people. Best wishes Rebecca ________________________________________ From: mama.nin@gmail.com [mama.nin@gmail.com] Sent: 24 September 2010 13:42 To: Daniel Oliveira Cc: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-L] How does Facebook find friends? It may have been that it initially scanned based on very basic information like last name and current city. First wave may have then included ppl like the mother and father. In subsequent algorithms it may have scanned those identified in first wave for shared friends- so it possibly identified the granduncle based on information like the mother and father (etc) have this shared friend, the granduncle. Hence, these ppl get suggested as possible friends in a shared network. Plus, FB is known for devious ways around accessing private information. That's my educated, non-expert guess. Best, Nora Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing, there is a field. I will meet you there ~Rumi _______________________________________________ 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/ -- The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt charity in England & Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302).
my guess is that it does a foaf tree of your domain, when you immediately join, but then uses other tools to build and make a foaf tree... a foaf tree is a network map of the relations of your Friends of a Friend, we already know that facebook uses friend of a friend analysis in its basic code and privacy structures, it is likely it uses it in this too. Jeremy Hunsinger Center for Digital Discourse and Culture Political Science Virginia Tech Everything you can imagine is real. --Pablo Picasso
foaftree ... is that something we set up, deploy, and decorate for System Administrators' Day? -rick On Sep 24, 2010, at 08:49 , jeremy hunsinger wrote:
my guess is that it does a foaf tree of your domain, when you immediately join, but then uses other tools to build and make a foaf tree... a foaf tree is a network map of the relations of your Friends of a Friend, we already know that facebook uses friend of a friend analysis in its basic code and privacy structures, it is likely it uses it in this too.
Jeremy Hunsinger Center for Digital Discourse and Culture Political Science Virginia Tech
Everything you can imagine is real. --Pablo Picasso
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The easy explanation would be that although Anders's stepson didn't upload his contacts list, the other relatives involved did, and the stepson appears in their uploaded contacts. Best regards, gm On 24/09/2010 13:49, "jeremy hunsinger" <jhuns@vt.edu> wrote: my guess is that it does a foaf tree of your domain, when you immediately join, but then uses other tools to build and make a foaf tree... a foaf tree is a network map of the relations of your Friends of a Friend, we already know that facebook uses friend of a friend analysis in its basic code and privacy structures, it is likely it uses it in this too. Jeremy Hunsinger Center for Digital Discourse and Culture Political Science Virginia Tech Everything you can imagine is real. --Pablo Picasso _______________________________________________ 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/ Dr Graham Meikle ---------------------- Senior Lecturer, Department of Film, Media & Journalism, University of Stirling, FK9 4LA, Scotland. T: +44 (0) 1786 466222 F: +44 (0) 1786 466855 E: <graham.meikle@stir.ac.uk> W: <http://www.fmj.stir.ac.uk/staff/graham-meikle/graham-meikle.php> New edited book out September 2010: 'News Online: Transformations and Continuities' http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?PID=349976 -- The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010 The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.
yes the combined contact lists of many people form the foaf tree, same basic explanation, but i'd say it isn't just his family, it is quite a few people that know him probably On Sep 24, 2010, at 9:02 AM, Graham Meikle wrote:
The easy explanation would be that although Anders's stepson didn't upload his contacts list, the other relatives involved did, and the stepson appears in their uploaded contacts.
Best regards, gm
On 24/09/2010 13:49, "jeremy hunsinger" <jhuns@vt.edu> wrote:
my guess is that it does a foaf tree of your domain, when you immediately join, but then uses other tools to build and make a foaf tree... a foaf tree is a network map of the relations of your Friends of a Friend, we already know that facebook uses friend of a friend analysis in its basic code and privacy structures, it is likely it uses it in this too.
Jeremy Hunsinger Center for Digital Discourse and Culture Political Science Virginia Tech
Everything you can imagine is real. --Pablo Picasso
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Dr Graham Meikle ---------------------- Senior Lecturer, Department of Film, Media & Journalism, University of Stirling, FK9 4LA, Scotland.
T: +44 (0) 1786 466222 F: +44 (0) 1786 466855 E: <graham.meikle@stir.ac.uk> W: <http://www.fmj.stir.ac.uk/staff/graham-meikle/graham-meikle.php> New edited book out September 2010: 'News Online: Transformations and Continuities' http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?PID=349976
-- The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010 The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.
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Jeremy Hunsinger Center for Digital Discourse and Culture Virginia Tech Live without dead time. -graffitti Paris 1968
Love the Rumi quote! Robert R. Bradley www.tnstate.edu/dme www.sandboxnetwork.org http://dmscgovchal.pbworks.com/ www.tedxnashville.com www.bobbradley.com ________________________________________ From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of mama.nin@gmail.com [mama.nin@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, September 24, 2010 7:42 AM To: Daniel Oliveira Cc: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-L] How does Facebook find friends? It may have been that it initially scanned based on very basic information like last name and current city. First wave may have then included ppl like the mother and father. In subsequent algorithms it may have scanned those identified in first wave for shared friends- so it possibly identified the granduncle based on information like the mother and father (etc) have this shared friend, the granduncle. Hence, these ppl get suggested as possible friends in a shared network. Plus, FB is known for devious ways around accessing private information. That's my educated, non-expert guess. Best, Nora Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing, there is a field. I will meet you there ~Rumi _______________________________________________ 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/
me too, thanks! ________________________________ From: "Bradley, Robert" <rbradley@Tnstate.edu> To: "mama.nin@gmail.com" <mama.nin@gmail.com>; Daniel Oliveira <bairroalto.lisboa@gmail.com> Cc: "air-l@listserv.aoir.org" <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Sent: Fri, 24 September, 2010 10:44:05 PM Subject: Re: [Air-L] How does Facebook find friends? Love the Rumi quote! Robert R. Bradley www.tnstate.edu/dme www.sandboxnetwork.org http://dmscgovchal.pbworks.com/ www.tedxnashville.com www.bobbradley.com ________________________________________ From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of mama.nin@gmail.com [mama.nin@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, September 24, 2010 7:42 AM To: Daniel Oliveira Cc: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-L] How does Facebook find friends? It may have been that it initially scanned based on very basic information like last name and current city. First wave may have then included ppl like the mother and father. In subsequent algorithms it may have scanned those identified in first wave for shared friends- so it possibly identified the granduncle based on information like the mother and father (etc) have this shared friend, the granduncle. Hence, these ppl get suggested as possible friends in a shared network. Plus, FB is known for devious ways around accessing private information. That's my educated, non-expert guess. Best, Nora Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing, there is a field. I will meet you there ~Rumi _______________________________________________ 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/ _______________________________________________ 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/
Hello all, I opened recently a new account at FB and I checked how it propose new friends. It started from the very first friend search I did by proposing friends of people related to people I searched for. This search was recorded, not only as a cookie but in their systems as I erased all the cookies and FB kept proposing new friends. One of the "devious ways accessing private information" might be the search recording... Regards, Yohanan Ouaknine -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of mama.nin@gmail.com Sent: Friday, September 24, 2010 2:42 PM To: Daniel Oliveira Cc: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-L] How does Facebook find friends? It may have been that it initially scanned based on very basic information like last name and current city. First wave may have then included ppl like the mother and father. In subsequent algorithms it may have scanned those identified in first wave for shared friends- so it possibly identified the granduncle based on information like the mother and father (etc) have this shared friend, the granduncle. Hence, these ppl get suggested as possible friends in a shared network. Plus, FB is known for devious ways around accessing private information. That's my educated, non-expert guess. Best, Nora Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing, there is a field. I will meet you there ~Rumi _______________________________________________ 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/
Thanks for all the responses. I think the solution this time is what many of you already suggested: I've checked, and my stepson's grandfather couldn't rule out that he had allowed Facebook to scan his e-mail. (His mother had NOT allowed it, and the granduncle doesn't know my stepson's e-mail address). So Facebook had probably "set aside" an account for this e-mail-address, just waiting for its owner to register. Some have also suggested FB used other profile data, but my stepson hadn't added anything but his birthday. Of course, if he had, the book would've used it. I tried setting up a new account for myself as an experiment, adding only my high school and grad year. No points for guessing who Facebook suggested as my friends. (Maybe we should collect the results of such experments? Has anyone done a thorough series of tests?) Yohanan Ouaknine suggested FB uses search data, which also seems likely, but in my stepson's case, the suggestions appeared before he had done anything. --anders -- Anders Fagerjord, dr.art. Associate professor, Head of Studies Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo P.O. Box 1093 Blindern N-0317 OSLO Norway http://www.media.uio.no http://fagerjord.no
It may be that the relatives have mentioned his name in some past post or that physically they are on the same internet location or internet wire to their location. Much is done geographically with the Internet. Many other web sites know where I live or tied in google maps and know exactly where I am on the street map as soon as I open their web site. Sometimes they locate me at the local army listening post as I believe our cities internet passes through there. Peter Timusk at571@ncf.ca ptimusk@sympatico.ca web: www.crystalcomputing.net blogs www.cyborgcitizen.org -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Anders Fagerjord Sent: September-24-10 2:14 AM To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: [Air-L] How does Facebook find friends? Dear all, does anyone understand the Facebook friend suggestions algorithm? Last night, my stepson joined Facebook. Immediately, it suggested he be friends with his mother, his grandfather, and his granduncle. How could Facebook know they were related? They had no friends in common, and didn't share friends-of-friends either. His last name is common in Norway (and his granduncle has a different name). He didn't enter any phone number or postal address. He used his gmail account when he joined Facebook, but did not allow the book to search his e-mail contacts (and he doesn't know his uncle's e-mail address). Does anyone understand how Facebook pulls this trick? --anders -- Anders Fagerjord, dr.art. Associate professor, Head of Studies Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo P.O. Box 1093 Blindern N-0317 OSLO Norway http://www.media.uio.no http://fagerjord.no _______________________________________________ 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/
participants (12)
-
Anders Fagerjord -
Bradley, Robert -
Christian Fuchs -
Daniel Oliveira -
Graham Meikle -
Jenny Advocat -
jeremy hunsinger -
mama.nin＠gmail.com -
Peter Timusk -
R.M.Ferguson -
Richard Forno -
yohanan