Facebook may (or may not) make friend suggestions based on your location
Apparently, the fastest way to get two different answers to the same questions is to ask a Facebook spokesperson.
That question: Does Facebook track user location to make friend suggestions.
Luckily, it is not a very important question, and one answer doesn't represent a huge privacy violation of Facebook's more than one billion users. Oh wait, it is, and it does. So what is really happening? In IT Blogwatch, we search for the location of the answer.
What's really going on? Kashmir Hill has the inside scoop:
On Friday, and again on Monday, Facebook told me that it uses smartphone location data to recommend new friends to...users. After I reported this, lots of people said that this explained why certain people had popped up in their “People You May Know” box on Facebook.
...
But...Monday night...Facebook reversed course. A spokesperson told me that the company had dug into the matter...and determined that “we’re not using location data, such as device location and location information you add to your profile, to suggest people you may know.”
...
I have reportorial whiplash. I’ve never had a spokesperson confirm and then retract a story so quickly.
Why the back and forth? Apparently, location information was kinda sorta used previously. Debbie Encalada explains a bit more:
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