[weci2i]

Facebook absolutely did this. A couple years ago I had a junior dev under me that management would not allow me to fire. And it’s so much worse than just the person searching. His feed recommended my close connections to him just because I watched his page.

He spent 75% of most days working for personal clients outside our company. The remainder of his days were spent pimping his projects on Facebook to build his personal brand. He was not a rock star programmer. His work was beyond subpar and he needed extra time, not less. We weren’t connected but I stalked his profile for time stamps and evidence. He lived at least 1.5 hours outside my locations except for the office.

One day he overheard me and another coworker discussing Facebook oddities and he interrupted, “Facebook keeps recommending (insert my wife’s name) as a connection.” He did not know my wife’s name and they had never been in proximity of one another.

[zeta0x10]

Interesting story but why mention that you were not happy with his work? It just seems orthogonal to the story (that FB suggested your wife, implying the social graph was built via your workplace to your wife and that he may have searched for you and you for your wife).

Not to dismiss your story, I am just interested about the reasoning.

[weci2i]

No problem. I was just trying to give a little context for why I was stalking the guy. In trying to avoid looking like a creeper I see how it just came off as petty. Neither was my intent. I appreciate the check.

[zeta0x10]

Ah, thanks that makes sense.