[gregschlom]

You got two assumptions wrong here:

1. People may very well have an account with a fake name, so that it doesn't show up in search. In France, for example, a large number of FB users are stripping out the vowels from their last name to make their FB account less findable.

2. According to the article, it's not the "gay friend" that put his phone number on his hidden account. He merely has OP's number in his phone address book (wich is normal since they are friends in real life), and the FB app is pulling this information.

[kunalb]

Hmm. 1) Fake name, yes -- I wasn't aware of that practice; not that common in India, at least in my friend circle.

2) That was what I meant -- syncing actual details with your anonymous persona.

[zem]

i'm indian and i have several friends with fake names.