Facebook is suggesting i add providers

[Workingclass]

So this is not the first time and I am wondering if anyone else is experiencing this. It does not suggest provider profiles it is suggesting i add them their personal profiles. So i am trying to figure how they are able to phish and use cookies to the point i am having providers private profiles suggested and that makes me feel a little uneasy and it must definitely make providers feel uneasy and even more cautious. I have notified the most recent but this makes it three now. One i haven't seen in a while was zoeyrose but had a real name and validity. most recent is well known and no i am not going to disclose it i have notified her and hopefully she can have stricter settings. Just a heads up to all to make sure and continue to clear cookies and everything from your cache on a regular basis. Every key stoke, number, and name searched is recorded which leads to this so not mean as an insult but here is what you need to do which if your apple sorry but should be similar.

1) Find settings tab in internet browser. For me google chrome it is the top right.

2) Once in settings go to the "History" tab.

3)Click clear browsing data. (here it can vary. Google chrome pulls up a window to select what you want to clear. Sometimes you have to select each individually)

4) once in history make sure to clear "cookies and other site plug ins" you can do browsing history, cached image files, and downloaded files if you want especially if you have people that want to snoop around but the cookies and site plug in is what stores the info to suggest things to buy or people to know.

pm if confused, i am wrong, an asshole, this is unnecessary, or you need more help. My internet safety is just as important as hobbying safety

[DFW_Ladies_Man]

I have a seperate hobby phone, email, and even a facebook page just for hobbying. I noticed this too but I think it is pulling info from phone numbers, or email addresses out of your contacts / numbers you have dialed.

[Re]

Clearing your history isn't going to stop those suggestions, that isn't how Facebook works. There are a lot of parameters (mutual friends, phone numbers, contacts, cities, places visited, places you've checked in at etc). Facebook is a very scary piece of social media, as there is no option to delete an account only to disable.

[George Spelvin]

I have had LinkedIn wanting me to add three different Providers to their network. ???

[TinMan]

I don't use any of my apps for the hobby. I access all through the web versions on private settings. So far, no issues like what you describe. However, I deleted my Facebook hobby profile a few years ago due to this very risk, even though I never had a problem of my hobby world and RW mixing.

[Workingclass]

what gets me is mine is seperate too so how can it still suggest people i have no friends in common. maybe clearing your cookie cache wont work. either way i do not like. it is pretty scary

[Workingclass]

Originally Posted by TinMan

I don't use any of my apps for the hobby. I access all through the web versions on private settings. So far, no issues like what you describe. However, I deleted my Facebook hobby profile a few years ago due to this very risk, even though I never had a problem of my hobby world and RW mixing.

exactly it is the hobby rw mix that i dont like

[TinMan]

So you aren't accessing (or have you ever accessed) any hobby accounts through apps? I'm including phone, Twitter, eccie, email, etc.

That parenthetical is important. Since I first got a smart phone, I've never used an app to access hobby accounts.

[Billogoods]

Maybe it's using your IP from your device or your modem/router. That's how chat sites ban you, I'm told.

[dallaswill]

I know I am the odd man out here because I have no social media profile. You name it and I am NOT on it. Don't even have a smart phone. The reason is exactly the problem Workingclass is facing.

I had made the decision to not be on social media long time ago and recent events just reinforced that.

I have rec'd unsolicited invitations from LinkedIn and Facebook to join my "friends". These invitations are ones that do not make sense to me. But somehow the reach of the data bases is so long, far, deep that associations are being made by the computers that I would never make in real life.

I am not paranoid as much as I am amazed at how interconnected we all are and do not know it. Even me, who is not on social media.

I finally figured out that somehow my emails were being harvested in some manner and then the associations were made with people on social media. That was the only connection I had with any of these people.

I believe my emails were being used to link me to people I did not know.

[oldmarine]

I hasn't happened to me but maybe it is because I use Google Voice to communicate with providers. Also, I don't access eccie or P411 from my phone. I do store provider phone numbers in my contacts but not email addresses.

[Billogoods]

Anything Google is interconnected with all of their apps. If you have a gmail account, it will link you to everyone else using anything Google. If you send/receive any emails with anyone that connects with another gmail account, you can be linked. They tie a Google+ acct to every user in their suite of apps. It cross-refs those users to link them & get more user info. How much info they get is unknown to me. But I have received multiple requests, "Do you know these people? Click to connect," or some such notifications.
So, it is reasonable to suspect other apps do the same. When you d/l an app, read the list of things you allow it to do. Facebook app can just about d/l all of your data. And every cookie can be harvested to see what you've been browsing. Just check out the ads that show up on web pages. Browse camera equip and there will be camera ads. Browse hooker sites and...I bet the IT dept will love you.

[ithyphallicus]

If you use Google Voice and save phone numbers they go into you phone address book, not a separate Google list. It's got to be linked to your phone number or possibly a provider phone number you've saved, maybe accidentally. Check your contacts.

[TinMan]

Originally Posted by ithyphallicus

If you use Google Voice and save phone numbers they go into you phone address book, not a separate Google list. It's got to be linked to your phone number or possibly a provider phone number you've saved, maybe accidentally. Check your contacts.

That must be true if you use the Google app. I access through the web interface, and there is no "cross-pollinization" with my RW contacts.

[Guest092216]

I used to run everything off of one phone and seperare accounts but keeping up with all the right settings every time I updated my OS or apps quickly proved to be too much for me and I starting seeing the same thing the OP describes.

I immediately changed my FB profile pic and cover photo to something impersonal and went thru all my email and phone contacts to delete whoever didn't belong in which account. There had been quite a bit of "cross-pollination" due to syncing, which freaked me out even more. So then I went through all social media and I unfriended/unfollowed anyone who might have a connection to the hobby or anyone I didn't know well in real life from my RW account. It's been quite a while since then and nothing has come up.

Now I have a totally separate burner phone I run everything off of that's listed to my fake provider name and a fake address. I also still keep Google voice on that phone as an added measure of separation. Clients have the GV number and providers have the actual number of the burner phone. No one has my real world number.

I feel reasonably protected now. But technology moves so fast right now, I still wonder if I missed something.