Facebook scanned my Yahoo contacts without me ever connecting

3 points by quantumpotato 14y ago ↗ HN

-Facebook suggested "people you may know", a profile with the name and photo of someone I recognize from Yahoo chat. No friends in common, not in the same state.

-I haven't signed into that Yahoo account for 2 weeks. Haven't spoken with that person for ~4+ months. -I've never let Facebook search my Yahoo contacts or vice versa.

-My usernames are different.

-My Yahoo account name & the name I gave in chat is different from my Facebook name.

-I've made searches for contacts on my Yahoo in the Facebook search eg `MyContactYahooName@yahoo.com`.-I don't have a phone number stored in Yahoo or Facebook but I've typed one into both in chats or messages.

-I don't have any photos on Yahoo that match my Facebook photos, but I have sent photos through Yahoo that match one of my Facebook photos.

-Their recent activity: ` NAME changed profile picture. NAME is now friends with FOOBAR and 6 other people.`

Cookie sharing? Treachery? What could I have missed that would let this happen?

3 comments

[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 15.3 ms ] thread

itsprofitbaron 14y ago ↗

You have mentioned the usernames are different but, I'm assuming its the same email. Therefore, Facebook could have easily done this by looking at the other persons emails if they have imported their contacts into Facebook.

quantumpotato 14y ago ↗

The e-mail I used for Facebook is with a different provider than Yahoo.

mmountford 14y ago ↗

Despite the apparent discomfort/amazement, did the product serve you better?

If so, then just enjoy it. Otherwise you should also start asking what's in the McRib. :-P