Facebook is facing another controversy regarding its location feature. Apparently, the social media giant could be using users' phone location to suggest friends nearby.
Fusion reported that a lot of people have been surprised and horrified at Facebook's creepy accuracy in its "People You May Know" section. It was noted that the social network may be using the location feature of users' smartphones to suggest people with whom they've shared a GPS data point with.
There have been cases that people, who don't have any other shared interests or common friends, find each other simply because they were at the same place at the same time at one point. A user checked the privacy settings on his phone and learned that Facebook "always" knew his location. He then immediately changed it to "never."
"'People You May Know' are people on Facebook that you might know," a spokesperson for the company said. "We show you people based on mutual friends, work and education information, networks you're part of, contacts you've imported and many other factors."
"Location information by itself doesn't indicate that two people might be friends. That's why location is only one of the factors we use to suggest people you may know."
Last year, Facebook was also under fire for using smartphone location data to track which stores their users go to. The social media giant then shares this information to tell advertisers whether their online ads worked.
According to NY Mag's Select All, a Facebook representative has denied the allegations. Apparently, location is not a factor on how the company suggests users' friends.
"We're not using location data, such as device location and location information you add to your profile, to suggest people you may know," the social media giant wrote in an email to the publication. "We may show you people based on mutual friends, work and education information, networks you are part of, contacts you've imported and other factors."
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