Many users have reported getting a notification from Facebook asking them if they know someone. This includes a Facebook profile of someone that you’re not already friends with. While all of this is harmful, Facebook does this to suggest friends that have a connection with you. If it finds someone that has a strong connection with you, it may notify you asking if you know them and want to add them as a friend.
Table of Contents
- Why Facebook Suggests Friends
- How To Prevent Facebook From Notifying Your Profile As Someone You May Know
- Does Facebook Ask If I Know Someone Because They Stalked My Profile?
- Conclusion
Why Facebook Suggests Friends
Facebook has a number of factors in its algorithms to suggest friends. Facebook does this to help users create a strong network on Facebook, motivating the users to use the app more often.
One way of suggesting friends is by providing you a list of People you may know or Suggested Friends, while the other way is to notify about a single person asking if you know them.
Here are the reasons Facebook claims why it does this.
1. You May Have Mutual Friends
If you have many mutual friends with someone that you’re not already friends with, Facebook will assume that you may know each other and haven’t had a chance to connect on Facebook.
For this reason, Facebook may end up sending you a notification for them asking if you know them, in hopes of getting you connected by having you add them as a friend.
2. Your Profile Data May Match
Facebook is popular for patching you up with long-lost friends and suggesting friends asking if you know them is one way it tries to achieve that.
If Facebook sees two user profiles that have the same data e.g. same schools, workplace, or town, Facebook may ask you if you know them, assuming a likely chance that you actually do.
3. You May Be Matched In Facebook Activity
Facebook activity refers to posts, comments, liking pages, etc. If you and another Facebook user have the same Facebook activity, Facebook may notify you about the person assuming that you may know them or could be good friends with them.
Examples of matching Facebook activity are getting tagged in the same post, getting mentioned in a comment together, joining the same groups, following the same pages, etc.
4. You May Be In Each Other’s Contact List
When you start using Facebook, Facebook asks for your permission to scan your contact list. They do this to see your contacts and match them up to their Facebook profiles and suggest Facebook friends for any contact that you have saved who is not already a Facebook friend to you.
If you’re sure that the person you got notified about isn’t in your contact list, your number may be in their contact list instead.
How To Prevent Facebook From Notifying Your Profile As Someone You May Know
If Facebook notifies you people that it assumes you have a strong connection by asking if you know them, there is a high chance that your profile is notified with the same question to other people as well. These people will probably have shared a strong connection with you for them to receive this notification.
However, if you don’t want this to happen, and want to keep your Facebook profile private, here’s what you need to do.
- Launch Facebook and head over to the Menu by clicking the three-line button in the top right corner of your screen.
- Now head over to Settings and privacy, and then go to Settings.
- Scroll down to Audience and Visibility and then click on How People Find And Contact You.
- In the drop-down menu, select Only Me.
With these settings, you will now be the only one who can add people as your friend. You should now prevent Facebook from showing your profile as a Suggested Friend to other people.
Does Facebook Ask If I Know Someone Because They Stalked My Profile?
No. While it seems like a likely scenario that Facebook will suggest you a profile as a friend who stalked you in the past, Facebook has publicly claimed that it does not suggest friends based on who you search up or stalk.
You viewing someone’s profile or someone else viewing your profile has no relation to suggestions for friends.
Conclusion
Facebook likes to connect users and keeps suggesting you friends asking if you know them. The algorithm Facebook uses to determine this is extremely complicated, but Facebook has publicly claimed 4 factors in how it filters out suggested friends.
Hopefully, this article cleared up your confusion.
Interested in more? Check out How To See Who I Am Following On Facebook?
