The "People You May Know" feature on Facebook is both Magical and Terrible

Facebook Illustration

Kashmir Hill and rebecca Porter didn't know each other till they met on Facebook through the feature "People you may Know". The last name "Porter" triggers kashmir Hill to get to know the owner of a further name. The reason, the last name is the same as that of his grandfather. Investigate a calibaration, rebecca Porter is the wife of his grandfather's brother. "Facebook knows my family tree is better than my very own," wrote kashmir Hill in an article. he's none other than a senior journalist at Gizmodo.

The people you may know feature (PYMK) allows Facebook users to meet cyberspace with people who are likely to be already known in real life. As it progresses, this feature gets smarter.
According to kashmir Hill, there are some strange stories he knows regarding the PYMK feature. as an example, a psychiatrist who boasted his 2 patients met at PYMK. In fact, the 2 patients have never been officially acquainted, but only understand each other's face.

There are also Facebook users who meet with former bosses, dates from online-date apps, to neighbors who actually don't know each other but often meet on the road. The results are accurate, but for some people somewhat spooky. Magical and horrible

PYMK feature on Facebook can be spelled out very magical, from where Facebook knows all this? The social network that Mark Zuckerberg founded was never really transparent. So far Facebook says PYMK results withdrawn from minor knowledge sources. Facebook's silence attitude is really making users cringe, especially in terms of privacy.

For example friend alias friend mutual friends, belonging to the same Facebook group, tagged within the same photo, coming from the same school or workplace, as well as contacts synced with the phone. If that was the only source of data, how could kashmir Hill meet rebecca Porter? the reason, they really don't have mutual friends. there's no slice between them that can be identified from the data source Facebook.

Facebook previously known to often buy information from third-party data providers alias data broker. data which will be collected from there's location information, activity in other applications, photos, and so forth. However, for the PYMK feature, Facebook denied accommodating data sources from brokerage data.

"Facebook doesn't use information from brokerage data for people you may know," said a spokesman for Facebook, as compiled KompasTekno, tuesday (29/08/2017) from Gizmodo.
In the case of kashmir Hill and rebecca Porter, a Facebook spokesperson argued lots of coincidences. according to him, often the account offered by PYMK of course, not a few also not appropriate.
Facebook spokespeople are reluctant to provide more in-depth info about the source data with privacy reasons. Known, similar features PYMK also owned LinkedIn and Twitter, but the results are not as "horror" offered by Facebook's PYMK.

"We are constantly change our algorithmic rule to determine Suggestion within the timeline," said Chief Privacy Officer of Facebook, Chris Kelly. "We don't indulge in detail the algorithm," he said.
Facebook doesn't seem to want transparent about the "kitchen" of his. If you're curious why you can meet someone you do not think, Facebook's answer can be less than satisfactory.
"People don't always like the suggestion of PYMK, the action that can be done is to press the icon" X "on the unwanted suggestion," Facebook spokesman said.

"That is the best method you'll do to provide feedback while helping us improve suggestions from time to time," he added. Kashmir Hill itself is happy to meet with distant and unreached relatives over the years. nevertheless, he's still curious and somewhat feel "afraid" with what's done up behind PYMK.


Source : tekno.kompas.com