How is LinkedIn connecting us to others?

CYBER SORTER:This week our social media agony aunt looks at how social network sites get the information to suggest friends and connections

Dear Cyber Sorter,

I’m trying to present a professional face on business social network LinkedIn but it keeps suggesting I connect with friends – actual, personal friends who have no connection to my professional life.

How does it know I know these people if they’re not at all connected to my network and should I connect to them on LinkedIn or just stick to Facebook? I find it a bit creepy and am not sure what to do.

LO

Dear LO,

The answer is simple. Hang on a minute, no it isn’t. It’s incredibly complex, involving algorithms, intricate programming details and possibly even black magic.

Anyone with a LinkedIn profile knows that on their home page is a section on the right hand side called People You May Know.

This section, similar to the friend finder on Facebook, conjures up people with whom you are not yet connected. They may be someone you already know and haven’t connected with yet or someone with whom it would be useful to connect.

Just how LinkedIn draws the lines between you and these people is a little mysterious.

People on internet forums have begun to wonder out loud if LinkedIn is accessing their email, Facebook and other connections without their permission.

Jason Alba, author of, I'm on Linked In: Now What???contacted LinkedIn with regard to this issue. He paraphrases their response on his website, thus: "The contacts that show up in that box are not coming from some access to any of your non-LinkedIn accounts without your approval." The controversy, though, continues with users suggesting that the person they sold their house to 10 years ago, or their ex-boyfriend whom they blocked on Facebook, are showing up like unwanted ghosts in their People You May Know section.

Contact sharing between big social network companies like LinkedIn, Facebook and Google should only occur when you give a platform permission to go through contacts and files from a separate application, such as your email or Facebook account.

However, your information is probably wider spread across the internet than you realise. These platforms constantly develop more sophisticated software to make use of any information in the public domain that it can find. You should also keep in mind that others you have been in contact with may have given access to their contacts, where you have not.

Do not connect to people on LinkedIn with whom you do not want a professional relationship. This platform is about forming a work network and there are much better places to conduct friendships, such as Facebook, Twitter and the pub.

If you work in PR and your friend works in construction, connecting on LinkedIn will put you in the networking sphere of other construction workers and is unlikely to bring you many PR opportunities.

If you want to focus on your work life then spend your time updating your LinkedIn profile and connecting to individuals who can complement and forward your career. Leave the friendly gossip on Facebook where it belongs.