Ever wondered what chooses the people that show up in the “People You Might Know” side bar, or the Facebook chat? They are certainly not your closest friends, or people that you even talk to. They are just random people from your Facebook account that happen to show up there. Well, truth is, Facebook knows way too much, and I mean, way too much about every single one of us. I traveled home yesterday, and Facebook knew. Wow, amazing. Nah, I am kidding; that is simple Global Positioning System data that Facebook certainly has access to. Every restaurant you go to that is registered in Maps, or Google Maps, Facebook will know as long as you have Location services enabled.

Now, what I mean is that every single little detail that you can think of, Facebook knows it. No, not precisely about your life (unless you allow it to), but I am talking about the information that Facebook can gather: where you have been, where you usually go, how often you travel around, what your friends do and where they tend to go, what your friend’s friends do and where they go, the amount of times someone visits your profile and the amount of times you visit other’s profiles. Facebook takes all of this information and much more in order to make your Facebook experience even better; in my eyes, however, it makes it even scarier. But how would Facebook use all of this information?

Say you went to the bar on Friday night. You saw a cute girl sitting across the bar. Nothing exciting going on yet, but you decided to go to the bar again next week, and spotted the same girl. This time you would go on and speak to her. Once you get home, you login into Facebook, and a familiar face pops up on “People you might know,” it is the girl from the bar. But wait…how did Facebook know you spoke to her? We do not even have mutual friends? It does not know that. It does not know you spoke to her. However, Facebook knows you went to that bar twice, both days on a Friday, and that the girl went to the bar as well. In addition, one of your friends is friends with a friend of hers, which Facebook assumes might somehow connect you to her even more.

It is true; most of it depends on global positioning and where you have been and where you plan on going. However, your likes, place of birth, movies, music and books also play into a factor. Facebook uses all of the information it can find about you: and I mean all of it. And how do I know this? Well… I did some testing of my own with fake accounts; Facebook’s social algorithm is surely a masterpiece that I have yet to unveil, however, obvious reasons (people I have never met popping up on my side bar menu) and some social testing allow me to believe all of the above is accurate.

Next time an unknown phone number calls you, write it down and look it up on Facebook, Twitter, or even Google. You will be surprised by what you can find out.