PSA. Facebook and others "following" you

[Melissa in New York]

I believe this has been posted before but...but if you have a Facebook account, you may wish to check the people who are following you. I was surprised to find a number of folks with foreign names who apparently are attached to my FB account.

 

Here's some steps to try. I am on my iPad so the steps may differ slightly.

1. Touch the upside-down arrow on the upper right hand side of screen.

2. Click on "settings". It will bring you to "General Account Settings

3. Look over to the far left side of screen and click on the word, "Blocking"

4. Go to the "Block User" section and type in the word, "following" without the quotations. This is where the folks who are following you without your knowledge will show up. I was surprised at the number. More than 10.

5. If you have any followers, you have the option to block them. You can also add your own names of those you wish to not follow for the moment or ever.

 

I suggest periodically checking as this does not eliminate future "followers".

 

~melissa

[HomeAgain]

Mine is still set up not to allow people to follow me. Under "Public Posts" in settings there is an option of who can follow me, and it's set at "friends".  No worries. :)

[PeachyDoodle]

Mine is still set up not to allow people to follow me. Under "Public Posts" in settings there is an option of who can follow me, and it's set at "friends".  No worries. :)

 

So is mine. But I had over 30 people following me when I checked this a few weeks ago, and more than 10 new ones when I checked again today.

 

[NorthwestMom]

Mine is still set up not to allow people to follow me. Under "Public Posts" in settings there is an option of who can follow me, and it's set at "friends".  No worries. :)

 

Mine is too, but there were still two unknown people listed as followers when I followed Melissa's protocol.  :confused1:

[4everHis]

No where does 'Blocking' show up in any of my settings. Should it be?

 

[katilac]

Mine is too, but there were still two unknown people listed as followers when I followed Melissa's protocol.  :confused1:

 

The protocol is actually incorrect, it does not identify people who are following you:   

 

http://www.snopes.com/facebook-paying-spies/

 

If your privacy settings are where you want them, you are fine. 

[HomeAgain]

Mine is too, but there were still two unknown people listed as followers when I followed Melissa's protocol.  :confused1:

 

Strange.  Mine literally says "Want followers of your own?  Let people follow you and they'll see your public posts show up in their newsfeed."  If I click that then it takes me to a page to set that up.

 

Below, it lists the one page and one person I am following (who I'm not friends with)

[Lorien]

This was going around Facebook a couple of weeks ago. If you type anything into the search bar under “blockingâ€, then it’s going to search for criteria matching what you searched for. The people that showed up when you searched “following me†proabably had some form of those words in their name. These people are not following you, they’re the names that show up when you search for people to block. In other words, you’re doing a search, finding names, and then freaking out because strangers are following you. They’re not. Facebook is just suggesting names that match as close as they can to your search.

 

In that feature, you type in a name so Facebook can find the person you want to block. It has nothing to do with anyone following you.

[sarasue7272]

I just did this. Two people with the last name Following came up. There is nothing to indicate they are following me.

 

It's a search box, it will bring up users based on the letters you type in. There is no reason to think these people are following you.

Edited October 8, 2017 by sarasue7272

[PeachyDoodle]

This was going around Facebook a couple of weeks ago. If you type anything into the search bar under “blockingâ€, then it’s going to search for criteria matching what you searched for. The people that showed up when you searched “following me†proabably had some form of those words in their name. These people are not following you, they’re the names that show up when you search for people to block. In other words, you’re doing a search, finding names, and then freaking out because strangers are following you. They’re not. Facebook is just suggesting names that match as close as they can to your search.

 

In that feature, you type in a name so Facebook can find the person you want to block. It has nothing to do with anyone following you.

 

This makes sense to me, but I wonder: if that's the case, why did I get two different lists the first two times I searched? And why, after I'd blocked everyone on the second list and then immediately searched again, did it say, "No matches found"?

 

Genuine question, no snark.

 

[hornblower]

This makes sense to me, but I wonder: if that's the case, why did I get two different lists the first two times I searched? And why, after I'd blocked everyone on the second list and then immediately searched again, did it say, "No matches found"?

 

Genuine question, no snark.

 

 

 

because you searched for people with a certain word in their name, then blocked that name so now the search results will be blank. 

[Wheres Toto]

This was going around Facebook a couple of weeks ago. If you type anything into the search bar under “blockingâ€, then it’s going to search for criteria matching what you searched for. The people that showed up when you searched “following me†proabably had some form of those words in their name. These people are not following you, they’re the names that show up when you search for people to block. In other words, you’re doing a search, finding names, and then freaking out because strangers are following you. They’re not. Facebook is just suggesting names that match as close as they can to your search.

 

In that feature, you type in a name so Facebook can find the person you want to block. It has nothing to do with anyone following you.

 

Yep, this is what happened for me.  Two people who had Following as a first or last name.  Followers who are not on your friends list can only see things that you make public.  

[Lanny]

We do not own any Apple products, but this to me is scarier than what you described about FB...   The Uber App on an iPhone can read the screen.  It is the only App (or the only 3rd part App, I forget) that can do that. Apple says that in the future they will do away with that.

 

When my DD was very young, and we had more $, she attended the wonderful U.S. accredited school here, in K4, K5 and First grade.  Recently, one of the Mother's who I was in a Volunteer Group with (a Values program that originated, of all places, in California) wrote on her FB that the FB of her son (who was in the same group with my DD) had been taken over by someone in a Muslim country. I think by someone in Iraq.

 

I will reread your post #1 again and check it out.  Thanks for the "heads up"

[Lanny]

Follow-on:   I followed the steps in post #1.  There were 4 people I do not recognize "Following" me. I now have them "Blocked".  Thanks!

[El...]

Ok, I just tried that.  One person came up, whose last name is "Following."  I didn't preemptively block him.  Imagine every poor guy or gal with that in their name getting a bunch of blocks on facebook!  I wonder what that does to their facebook account.

[Melissa in New York]

I just did this. Two people with the last name Following came up. There is nothing to indicate they are following me.

 

It's a search box, it will bring up users based on the letters you type in. There is no reason to think these people are following you.

Feeling kind of silly; I'm sorry if I posted one of those Snopes-validated "scams". I usually check there first. However, I'm scratching my head as to why the names of people that showed up did not have the word, "following" in it? I did have one (possibly two) names with it but not the others. Names like Mary Smith and MeeNaa.

[EMS83]

Wow FB is confusing.

[Scarlett]

Feeling kind of silly; I'm sorry if I posted one of those Snopes-validated "scams". I usually check there first. However, I'm scratching my head as to why the names of people that showed up did not have the word, "following" in it? I did have one (possibly two) names with it but not the others. Names like Mary Smith and MeeNaa.

 

 

Yeah, it is a scam but when I tried it I had the name najm come up. Nothing to do with the word following.

[regentrude]

How does it matter whether they are "following" me if I set my privacy settings for posts to be visible to friends only? What can the "followers" possibly see?

[Scarlett]

How does it matter whether they are "following" me if I set my privacy settings for posts to be visible to friends only? What can the "followers" possibly see?

 

 

They can't following you if you don't let them.  The info in OP is a scam...unknown to OP at the time she posted.

[Guest]

How does it matter whether they are "following" me if I set my privacy settings for posts to be visible to friends only? What can the "followers" possibly see?

And, it is the internet. I don’t put anything on FB that I wouldn’t yell out a window, even in groups.

[katilac]

Feeling kind of silly; I'm sorry if I posted one of those Snopes-validated "scams". I usually check there first. However, I'm scratching my head as to why the names of people that showed up did not have the word, "following" in it? I did have one (possibly two) names with it but not the others. Names like Mary Smith and MeeNaa.

 

It may similar to the city they live in, it may be in a recent post. It doesn't just check names, it's trying to find a possible person based on the information you put in. For example, I just put in the name of my mom's town. Two types of people popped up: people with that or something similar in their actual Facebook name, and people who live in that town, but no one I actually know, lol. The search for that is bad, you are really meant to know the name. If you aren't sure of complete spelling, you can put in the first few letters and search, and people on your friends list with that as part of their name should be first to come up. That's really all that particular search function is for. 

[Lorien]

This makes sense to me, but I wonder: if that's the case, why did I get two different lists the first two times I searched? And why, after I'd blocked everyone on the second list and then immediately searched again, did it say, "No matches found"?

 

Genuine question, no snark.

 

I don’t know what the search criteria is that Facebook uses, but if it doesn’t come up with an exact match, it probably goes for whatever it can find that’s close. One lady I know (not here) search3d twice. The first time every name contained the letters “meâ€. She changed the search to “following ma†and every name had the letters “maâ€. I’m assuming other factors would come into play too, like the location of the person searching, or whatever else.

 

As for the different results, that would go back to not finding an exact match so it went for the closest it could come up with. Did you block the first list before searching the second time? If you did, then those names would already be blocked and wouldn’t show up again.

 

However it works, that search bar has nothing to do with finding out who’s following you and everything to do with finding people to block. So all over the world people are being blocked by total strangers just because their names matched a search. 😂

[Mom25girls]

Thank you.