Amid all the legitimate concerns about Facebook's default privacy invasion, I have come across a mystery. At least a few times a month, Facebook suggests that I should be friends with a particular person I don't think I know:
I'm 99% I'm sure I don't know a Rosalinda Walters. (And boy am I going to be embarrassed if I'm wrong...). The number of Facebook "friend requests" from people trolling for contacts is growing, but this is different: Facebook says it thinks I might know her. Clicking through to her profile is of no help:
Still no clue. Facebook identifies this person as male, although the photo kinda disagrees with that. He isn't friends with any of my friends. Why does Facebook think I should be friends with this person? Is this a test of whether I would say "yes" to a suggestion of an almost-comically buxom person whom I didn't know? Or just more bad database mining on Facebook's part?
One disturbing part of the profile page is the "Report/Block this Person" link. Given that I got to the profile page from Facebook's suggestion, it is completely inappropriate for me to have the possibility of hurting Rosalinda's online reputation at this stage in the interaction. It is probably too much to expect Facebook to have a "Report Our Error To Us" link, but to allow me to trash someone that Facebook suggested shows a callous disregard for its users' reputation.
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