Social Media friend suggestions and facial recognition

[KarenCD334]

I?m still pretty deep in the closet but I do get out once in a while. I used to have a facebook account for Karen. I deleted it after this happened. I was browsing my ?drab? Facebook account one day and Facebook offered up People you may know to add as friends. Don?t you know in the mug shot lineup was a picture of my alter ego - Karen. I was mortified. I have no idea why Facebook offered Karen as a person I may know but it exposed to me a manner of being discovered that I had not considered.

Since then I have deleted my Karen account.

But I have also wondered about facial recognition algorithms by Facebook, Google, and others. So, I have become extremely cautious about posting pictures of Karen.

Have others become sensitive to these potentially discovery methods as well?

[Taylor Dame]

Facial recognition apps are getting better, but I doubt it was one that chose your alter-ego to appear in your suggested friends. I believe Facebook suggests people with similar IP addresses. It's still a good reason to close your account, or you might use a VPN for your Karen account.

[alwayshave]

Taylor is correct, both accounts hit Facebook with the same IP address, therefore Facebook thinks you are related.

[kimdl93]

I do not trust Facebook. Who knows what connections it may draw between people.

[Teresa.Smith.VA]

I agree 100% with kimdl93. Facebook's privacy policy is not designed to protect your privacy. It's designed to gather tons of information about you and use it to be financially successful. Facebook gathers information about you even when you are not logged in to Facebook.

[Stephanie47]

I'm in the camp of thinking it is the IP address. This is can get even a little bit wilder. When my daughter lived in Chicago she was a poor graduate student. She did not have internet access but her neighbor did not password protect her WiFi so my daughter was able to use her neighbor's internet. I'm sure there were privacy violations on both sides of the wall.

[Maid_Marion]

Facebook is all about selling stuff. Not only does it know I buy women's clothes, but I got a great deal on a skirt through Facebook. It was on closeout, but only through the Facebook link.

[MarinaTwelve200]

Well, for the first time last night, my makeup job was so good it even fooled the face recognition on my I-Phone. I had the damndest time making calls and texting I don't worry about Facebook, as I keep my CD stuff off of there. And I only post pictures of myself as "Marina" On THIS site. I am confident that no one can recognize my "Female" alter ego as she looks so drastically different than my MALE self.

I have, however, had some very interesting ads come up on Amazon, FB and other places concerning things I have had no dealing with on line. It seems like the mere act of purchasing ANYTHING with a credit or Debit card in a store can spawn a series of ads for the same product on all of my FB accounts, amazon and even Microsoft pages. Sometimes even just price checks. There might be "electronic eyes" EVERYWHERE!

[GaleWarning]

Big Brother is watching!

[Jenn A116]

Agree with the cautions above. It's exactly that which keeps Jennifer from having her own FB page.

[Erin Lafleur]

A segregated social media account, the use of different browsers or e-mail accounts for purchasing, frequenting this (or any other site), vpn etc, does absolutely nothing for your illusion of privacy. Privacy does simply not exist on the web. Full stop.
Still have the same cell # from 10 years (or six weeks ago)? You're triangulated...
These are multi-billion dollar companies who's sole purpose (with the assistance of AI) is to identify and market to you. I'm pretty cautious. but despite all of the above precautions, I am still inundated (on my "male" browser or mobile device) with women's clothing ads that feature all of the dresses, skirts, panties etc that I have either previously paused over or clicked to have a closer look.
In order...
Don't, for a moment think you're incognito. You aren't...

[countrygirl]

I had the same issue with the parents before I blocked them from my Amanda Facebook. They found my female side in the hey you might know this person.

[Karren H]

Karren left Facebook many years ago and I do not plan to ever go back. My male side does not have a FB or any other kind of social media presence, except for a professional account on LI.

[jacques]

hello Karen,
Facebook gets info from my google searches et cetera. This means that I constantly get adverts for bras.
I have two f/b accounts (one accessed from my PC and one from my mobile telephone) and often get "friend" suggestions from one to the other. That does not mean that those people suggested know about my 2 accounts
Could it be that you googled your other self or did a search on Facebook at some time?
luv J

[Fiona_44]

I stay away from facebook completely, way too intrusive, privacy non-existent.

[WandaRae2009]

This is the reason Wanda does not have a social media presence. I just don't trust them. Especially since they would be coming from the same IP address. Just hope it didn't send the same suggestion to all the friends on your drab account.

[Aunt Kelly]

To my knowledge, FB does not use facial recognition to make friend suggestions. They most certainly do use an extremely effective way of mining the huge pile of data that they have on you. If you and your Karen account had any friends in common, it's certain that FB noticed. If your two personas showed the same interests and likes, ditto. Unless you are willing to carry out the vigilance and circumspection to prevent FB from making such connections, the safest thing to do is not carry that second identity. FB makes alot of money figuring out this stuff and they are very good at it.

[BrendaPDX]

I looked into this a little, if you the same computer for each profile then the two identities will be linked. Best to use two different computers and never visit the other identity. Please let me know if I am wrong. Good luck.

[CDMargret]

Well this one got me going. I logged on and found my parents profiles and quickly blocked them. That would have been an epic disaster of biblical proportions...lol Thank You

[Lisa Gerrie]

@BrendaPDX I use two different browsers on the same computer, Firefox for Lisa vs. Chrome for everything else.

Facebook's "People You Might Know" algorithm is almost 100% based on friends-of-friends. Only very rarely will it suggest somebody with whom you share 0 friends, and there's always some sort of link other than the city. AFAIK it doesn't use your IP address at all, which wouldn't work if somebody uses a VPN. (Which visitors to websites like cd(dot)com often do, for anonymity.)

Websites like FB assume that two accounts using the same computer are simply two members of a household that share a computer. It's not surprising that FB would suggest friending somebody in your own household, or with some other clear connection to you.

I don't think it would suggest Lisa to my other FB friends because my main account hasn't friended Lisa.

[Kitty Sue]

I deleted facebook years ago. One of the best moves I have made on the internet. I don't miss it at all.

[Genifer Teal]

Not sure I'd accept a friend request from me. Lol I only have one set of social media anyway.

[Sometimes Steffi]

I don't use Facebook, so I don't get any friend requests.

I do get all kinds of adverts on my computer, but I assume that the search engines compare what I search for, e.g., bras) and feed me related adverts.

Techie speak sidebar follows:

However, I do know something about IP addresses. Unlike what you are led to believe from TV, like NCIS, using your IP address to find someone is not terrible effective because it's not how the Internet works. Most individuals are assigned temporary "dynamic" IP addresses. Think of it as renting the IP address. Dynamic IP addresses recycle themselves, and have an expiration date. They can also be reset by the DOS (command line) command "ipconfig". Use the option to release the IP address and your Internet Service Provider (ISP) will let you rent a new one. You can do this anytime, each time you turn on the computer, or every half an hour if you like.

[Krisi]

If you want to stay in the closet, never have an account anywhere in your female name and never post photos of yourself dressed on the Internet. The exception would be this forum, but even then there is no absolute guarantee that someone won't find out about your little "hobby". Facebook is the worst. If it suits you, a male account on Facebook is relatively safe or a female account. But never, ever both.


As for facial recognition, some software is better than others, but it's a sure bet that it will get better as time goes on. My phone doesn't recognize me as Krisi, but then again it's only able to recognize me as Homer about half the time.

For the Facebook detractors, I have been able to keep up with far distant family and friends as well as reconnect with friends from many years ago, so in general, I like it. It's a bit heavily censored, but that goes with the territory. More plusses than minuses.