Wednesday's Weird Web Thievery: Big Brother is watching but will they control us?

Today I had quite a surreal experience.
We have just developed a new client relationship with Liquorland Nelson. If you are in Nelson and you find yourself in need of a drink, then this is the place to go and buy yourself something! They carry quite a range of specialist wines, beers & spirits, and they are just all around nice people. What more could you ask for!

We have been setting up their pages on Facebook and getting them sorted for the exciting world of marketing with social media as one of their tools in the marketing mix.

What has this to do with big brother you ask?

All of the preliminary work on this project has been done in our office, using one of our website's email addresses to get the process completed. The client's personal details have not been exposed to facebook - ever - as they don't have their own facebook account. The only way at that stage for Facebook to connect the dots was when we included the client's cell phone number into the profile details to set the vanity URL on the company's "personal" account.

Today, after completing the setup of a Facebook Page, and also a personal account I went to their shop to complete the install and switch over the primary email address. Simple process. Just a quick verification via their email handler, in this case MS Outlook, nicely tucked behind a national network firewall and Mail Marshall. We then log into Facebook using the new email address and carry on.
What happened next was mind boggling, but we will save that bit for after the read more.....

In the meantime here is some shifty marketing / streetart for Urban Guru as web thievery, even though we designed it ourselves!
Take a look at the range of shirts we have designed as a part of The Urban Guru Empire project - we are very happy with how all of this is progressing, but I digress!
Save the image and print it (it is large) then stencil it & send us a photo of the results!

Take the power back, Master your Identity!
.....but more about the Facebook saga ......

So here I was, in an upstairs office setting up a Facebook page.
We got through the process and I started showing the client the difference between a personal account that has "friends", and the Business Page that has "Likes". At this stage the personal account has only one friend, me, so the friend suggestions on the annoying Welcome Page at a quick glance are mostly from my friends list. At this point the client says, "hey I didn't know you knew my sister in law....."

ALARM BELLS. The cogs started turning. How is this possible?
I had not ticked any boxes allowing Facebook to access the client's email handler, contact list or other email contacts. He had no previous Facebook account. The computer may have been used by other staff to access Facebook but this was an entirely new personal account that made no mention of his name, it was set up in the businesses name as well.

How did Facebook know to suggest his sister in law as a friend?
Is Facebook really that clever that it can connect the dots between people so quickly?
Your thoughts in the comments below would be most entertaining!
I would love to have some better understanding on this.

If you have concerns about just what is going on with Facebook, or are tired of the continual changes to privacy settings which see your information becoming less and less secure, why not start branching out and try a different social media platform. We have been working with clients in the Netherlands for several years on a massive project called TussockJumper.com. This is a Global Information sharing network with a comprehensive social media component which functions much like Facebook. Users can set up profiles, post to a wall, keep a blog, and set up networks of friends with a conprehensive privacy function which the user totally controls. Be an early adopter and set up your profile now.