| A little while ago, I created a Facebook account for myself—not because I
plan on doing anything with it, but just as an experiment.
When I
registered, I filled in just three items: my real name, my date of birth, and my
Google mail account. Everything else (where I live, where I reside, where I
work, what I'm interested in, etc.) were left blank.
When I logged on to my
new Facebook account, I saw a “Find Friends” button, so I
decided to try that—though I didn't expect much interesting to show
up.
Imagine my surprise when the first suggestion was... my brother's son!
How on earth could they link him to me? I, for one, didn't tell them
anything about our relationship (well, not willingly and explicitly, anyway).
(Another surprise, then, is that his daughter did not show up in the
list. Why would they discover the one, but not the other?
Weird...)
Furthermore, a number of my co-workers showed up in the list
of suggestions; I have no idea how they arrived at this educated guess as to
where I might work.
The remainder of the list, on the other hand, seemed
pretty much randomly chosen, as far as I can tell.
Now, if, with what little
information I provided to them, they can at least discover some
relationships with surprising accuracy, imagine what a goldmine I can become to
them, as I tell them more about myself. As they get to know me better and
better, I'm sure they will start to “gently” guide me
anywhere they want to—and learn how they can profit the most from me. And,
the more “normal” I consider the way Facebook integrates into
my life, I'm sure the less I become consciously aware about the manipulation
that's taking place.
Creepy stuff! [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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