So my dentist's personal page just turned up in the "people you may know" section of my FB page.

[Seasider]

I have observed that friends of friends and non friends in my fb groups have shown up in this area from time to time. But, my dentist?

 

I understand perhaps if I were browsing on my laptop, but I've only ever pulled up my dentist's professional info on safari on my iPhone or my phone contact list. Can one of you tech savvy folks explain this seemingly seventh degree of separation recommendation? It kind of made me go hmmm...

[Lieutenant Stranger]

Have you ever emailed your dentist's office?

[mathnerd]

I emailed a seller on ebay and she came up on my FB recommended friends. And then, I posted something about my baby and my boss's boss at work "liked" it - I always kept a professional relationship with that person and was taken aback that this person was connected to me (which I did not know) and was a witness to my private life (though I had nothing to hide or be ashamed of). It seemed like an invasion of privacy and that I lost the right to be anonymous to certain people. Around that time I decided to get off FB.

[Seasider]

Ashley, I hear ya! I hold no illusion about fb not being completely private and anonymous, but I did feel like my settings left it pretty protected, kwim?

 

My dentist's office did just recently institute an email reminder service, but the email I gave them is not the same email address used on my fb page. So, weird!

[zoobie]

Any mutual friends?

[Seasider]

Any mutual friends?

That was my first thought - can't come up with any. But you never know who knows who, right? I wish that the "people you may know" would add "and how you might know them"!

[zoobie]

If you click on their picture, their profile will show you mutual friends.

[magnificent_baby]

I emailed a seller on ebay and she came up on my FB recommended friends. And then, I posted something about my baby and my boss's boss at work "liked" it - I always kept a professional relationship with that person and was taken aback that this person was connected to me (which I did not know) and was a witness to my private life (though I had nothing to hide or be ashamed of). It seemed like an invasion of privacy and that I lost the right to be anonymous to certain people. Around that time I decided to get off FB.

 

This is why I am so hesitant to post anything. About half of my news feed are posts that my friends have commented on, to people that are not on my friends list. I feel terrible seeing someone else's personal posts that I'm sure they didn't intend for numerous strangers to read. I hate that! 

[Arcadia]

Facebook does read the safari cache and the phone contact list.  For contacts, you can disable that under privacy settings

[Seasider]

If you click on their picture, their profile will show you mutual friends.

Okay, I just tried that, no mutual friends.

[Kathryn]

This is why I am so hesitant to post anything. About half of my news feed are posts that my friends have commented on, to people that are not on my friends list. I feel terrible seeing someone else's personal posts that I'm sure they didn't intend for numerous strangers to read. I hate that!

That has to do with the OP's settings. I always check before I comment on anyone's posts if they have it public or not. I very rarely will post if they do.

[Seasider]

That has to do with the OP's settings. I always check before I comment on anyone's posts if they have it public or not. I very rarely will post if they do.

Okay, so that sounds like a good tip - to check the other person's fb setting before adding a comment. Guess I'll root around and figure out how to do that.

[Kathryn]

Okay, so that sounds like a good tip - to check the other person's fb setting before adding a comment. Guess I'll root around and figure out how to do that.

At the top of the post, there is a tiny picture in gray. A globe means everyone can see it. A person with another person to their side means that person's friends can see it. A person with a person on each side of them means that friends of that person's friends can see it. A gear means the person has set special settings to determine which of their friends can see it.