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" Facebook is getting smarter and smarter. I was quietly sat in Five Guys yesterday lunchtime devouring a burger and perusing my phone, when I got a big pop-up at the top of my newsfeed. TELL EVERYBODY YOU&amp;#039;RE AT FIVE GUYS, Facebook was urging;\u00A0while I was thinking &amp;#039;you&amp;#039;re alright love, I&amp;#039;d rather not&amp;#039;. But it was a stark reminder that Facebook knows where I am\u00A0all\u00A0the damn time. And prompting us to &amp;#039;check in&amp;#039; to our local burger joints isn&amp;#039;t the only reason it wants to know our location, either. Because it turns out, the social network has sneakily\u00A0started using our locations to suggest who we should become friends with. Which is all well and good and stuff, but when when did you become Tinder, Facebook?  Using GPS, Facebook tracks your location and is therefore likely to suggest you become friends with other\u00A0people who have also been detected at that very same\u00A0data spot. So theoretically, that hot guy you see on the train every morning but don&amp;#039;t have the balls to chat to could come up on your Facebook suggested friends list because you&amp;#039;re so frequently detected in the same place. The fact that it would definitely look weirder to add someone on Facebook\u00A0you&amp;#039;ve never uttered two words to IRL, than to just opt for the old-fashioned &amp;#039;hi&amp;#039;, is presumably beside the point. At least it enables Facebook stalking capabilities, anyway. But if this information makes you uncomfortable, you can quite easily prevent it by simply switching location services to &amp;#039;off&amp;#039; when it comes to the app. It&amp;#039;s also worth noting that Facebook uses the phone numbers in your contact list to suggest possible friends. Turning your location off\u00A0does, however, mean you&amp;#039;ll no longer be prompted to share with your friends list every time you go for a burger at Five Guys, because it won&amp;#039;t know where you are anymore. Which is a shame, so it&amp;#039;s a real case of swings and roundabouts. UPDATE: Facebook insists that it&amp;#039;s NOT actually using your location to suggest friends, suggesting this is just a vicious rumour. A spokesperson said:\u00A0 &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;re not using location data, such as device location and location information you add to your profile, to suggest people you may know. We may show you people based on mutual friends, work and education information, networks you are part of, contacts you&amp;#039;ve imported and other factors.&amp;quot; So there you go. Make of that what you will. Follow Cat on Twitter. Like this? Come and check us out on\u00A0Snapchat Discover.\u00A0  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/entertainment/news/a44302/facebook-uses-location-suggest-friends/>