How does Game Center find friends to Recommend?

Discussion in 'General Game Discussion and Questions' started by Adams Immersive, Dec 27, 2011.

  1. Adams Immersive

    Adams Immersive Well-Known Member
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    Dec 5, 2008
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    #1 Adams Immersive, Dec 27, 2011
    Last edited: Dec 28, 2011
    I’ve never used the Game Center friends feature; I have zero GC friends, and zero requests pending.

    But I do notice the automatic recommendations for friends in the GC app and I’m curious: where on earth do they come from?

    At least 50% of them are people I do actually know! But they are NOT in my Address Book. (Besides, I have not given GC permission to access my Contacts anyway—I see where GC offers the option, but I haven’t enabled it.) And I have never played a game with any of them; nor with anyone they know. (Most of them list 0 games in common.) I’ve never even exchanged a call or email with most of them. They are not my real-life “friends" per se; but they ARE people I know slightly, and many of them know each other.

    So where on earth is GC getting these people from?? I want to understand, as a matter of privacy.

    FWIW, I believe most of these people are connected to each other on Facebook, but I don’t use Facebook; I have an account, but I disabled everything and set privacy to the max. Besides, I never heard of Apple gathering info from Facebook. These people also seem be members of the same group on Meetup.com—that’s the strongest correlation I can find—but again, how would Apple know that?

    And it’s not geolocation; GC doesn’t ask for GPS access, nor is any GPS activity logged. And anyway, by location I’d get hundreds of strangers, not mostly real-life acquaintances.

    (Related concern: I also see that GC reveals these peoples' real name AND GC playername. It ties those two names together—and shows their photos—even before anyone has made a friend request. I thought real names were supposed to be hidden until you make a friend request, but here GC is broadcasting my real name and playername to other people as recommendations.)

    Thanks for any insight! I’ve only found vague info from Apple.
     
  2. kearnel

    kearnel Well-Known Member

    Oct 10, 2011
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    I noticed that it shows ppl that are friends of ur other gc friends, and with games in common
     
  3. Adams Immersive

    Adams Immersive Well-Known Member
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    Dec 5, 2008
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    Yes, except I have zero GC friends (I've never used that feature) so it’s not that; nor is it games in common, since many of the recommended people list 0 games in common.

    The recommendations have to come from outside my gaming activity, since they’re people I know locally. But from where?
     

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