I know it used to be by friends in common, which made sense. But for the past few weeks I've been suggested friends who I don't have any friends in common with, but the weird thing is I know the people suggested (or know of them).
Example:
- my mom's cousin, who lives across the country, who JUST joined FB and only has two friends to date, neither of whom I know
- my old co-worker's ex-boyfriend's father. I only recognized who it was by the unique last name. I am "friends" with the old co-worker, but she is not friends with either her ex-boyfriend or his father. We have no friends in common, and live in different countries
- a teacher from high school. We have no friends in common and I do not have any high school information anywhere on my FB profile. We live in different areas of the province
- my old boss, no friends in common
There are a few other examples I could think of, and all of them are so random. My mom's cousin and my old boss could very well have my email address saved in their email account's address book, and let FB search their address book, and decided not to add me, and FB still kept the information and decided to suggest them to me... but there is no way my co-worker's ex-boyfriend's father would have my email address, or even know of me, and there's no way my old teacher would have my email address. I have none of these people's email addresses, and I have never let FB search my address book anyway. Also, although my name is legally hyphenated, I purposely only used my "married" name and not my maiden name because I didn't want old high school friends contacting me, so I doubt my old teacher searched for me and found me (and if he did, and FB recorded that, does that mean that everyone I've snooped on gets a friend suggestion from me? God I hope not!)
It's so weird, it's like FB is stalking us now...
Re: How does facebook suggest friends for you?
Other weird and random examples:
- someone I took "Mother Goose" nursery rhyme baby classes with. No friends in common, and she wouldn't have my email address. I don't think she would have ever heard my last name in class to search for me (I didn't even recognize her name, only her kid in her profile picture). We never talked, we were just in the same class
- a clerk at the grocery store who I recogized by picture and the weird spelling of her first name. No friends or anything in common. There's no way she'd possibly know my name to search for me, because I always pay by debit and my debit card doesn't have my name on it
- my 12 year old sister's best friend's mom. Neither my sister nor her friend have FB accounts. I guess she could have searched for me to try to snoop on me...?
The more I think about this the more this is weirding me out. Although I do have my "current city" filled out in FB, I live in a decent-sized city, I can't imagine FB is randomly selecting all these people I know or know of in my city. And a couple of the people do not live in the city (or even in Canada), so WTF?
I wonder if they save people you have searched?
It has made some weird suggestions for me as well.
- my estranged father who I have not spoken to in 3 years, and is not friends with any of my friends
- my estranged father's wife
- my MIL, who is friends with only 2 people, none of whom are friends with me
It goes by their address book too. So if someone signed up and had your email address or one of your friends email addresses in their address book (and they click to notify those people) it will add them to the list of people that you might like to friend.
Also apparently by what apps you have, what groups you have joined, what pages you are a fan of.
Honestly it sounds like there is something with your settings that is off. Anyone who is suggested to me is friends with at least 1 of my friends.
Maybe check the FAQ.
Here is the answer
http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=15325