“Massive Privacy Fail” By Facebook.

Holy crap.

According to this, that Facebook feature which suggests “People You May Know” to you miiiiiiight just be a little too creepy.

A psychiatrist told Fusion.net that Facebook has been recommending her patients to one another, using factors like phone contacts and possibly geographical proximity. The psychiatrist, who only went by “Lisa” in order to protect what little remaining privacy her patients apparently have, told Fusion that she lives in a small town, and since she shares her phone number on social media, the app connected her to her patients (who likely had her number in their own contact lists.)

Everything is connected now, y’all. It’s freaky.

One of her patients got a friend suggestion from Facebook and recognized the person as someone she saw on the elevator at Lisa’s office.

Lisa is speaking out to let people know about this “massive privacy fail” as she calls it. She said,

“I have patients with HIV, people that have attempted suicide and women in coercive and violent relationships.”

In other words, the suggestions Facebook is making could actually be dangerous.

Facebook, meanwhile, insists that its friend-suggesting algorithm doesn’t use geographic proximity as a factor, and they would not confirm the theory that the phone number is what linked Lisa’s patients together. Their spokesperson DID say that the “People You May Know” function uses a “variety of data” to put together its lists, including mutual friends, phone contacts, school and work info and other networks to which their users belong.

Facebook knows everything about everyone, and this is just another example of how that could be really really creepy.

Will it change how you use it? Discuss.