I’m using Skype for Windows Desktop. I also use Gmail and keep contacts there. Today I see that Skype has added about 30 potential contacts that read something like “Alex. Not connected on Skype yet” and “Alex is an address book contact” and there is a button to “Connect on Skype”.
It is not specified what is meant by “address book”. Do they really mean GMail’s address book because that is the only place where I have this person as a contact. How did this happen?
This person “Alex M******” I am certain to have contacted only via Android cellphone SMS, cellphone voice, and Gmail and yet Skype is aware of this person. I added this person to my Gmail contacts not long ago and I am confident about what I recall doing with the contact information. How can Skype know of this person?
Some of these new Skype contacts are in my Gmail contacts.
Some of these new Skype contacts are people who are NOT in my Gmail contacts but I recognize the name.
Some of these new Skype contacts are people who are NOT in my Gmail contacts and I don’t recognize the names.
Why is this happening?
Edit: More information. I have no local Outlook/Hotmail client. I only use web mail (Gmail and Hotmail). I use Hotmail as a alternative but very seldom and I don’t maintain any “address book” in it. In my contact list Alex M******’s email address is a Gmail address.
Answer
The most important thing that you have to keep in mind about “free” online services is that you are not their customer. You are the product that they’re selling. Their real customers are the advertisers and government entities that are paying them for the analytics data they’ve collected on you. Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo!, etc. are information brokers in that regard, and the tactics they use to gather this information are as shrewd as they are sophisticated.
I can’t say specifically how Skype knows who “Alex” is, but you can bet that it inferred the relationship based on common browser fingerprinting techniques.
Here’s a simplified example of how this works:
Let’s say you visit the web page of a local bike shop that has a Facebook “share us” or “like us” button on it. Congratulations, you are now the proud owner of a Facebook cookie. That cookie contains an ID number that is tied to specific information that can be easily gleaned from the page hit; your IP address, browser name and version, installed fonts, installed plug-ins and their versions, operating system, language, etc. The combination of all these metrics can identify you uniquely out of the millions of other computer users out there.
Now that they’ve got the fingerprint, they build a dossier on you, attached to that fingerprint. Every site you visit with those Facebook buttons on it can read that ID and sends this information back to Facebook. As you travel around the Internet, Facebook tracks you and knows what sites you’ve visited and when. If you landed there from a Google search, they know what your search query was too. Over time this data paints a picture of who you are; your tastes, interests, habits, hobbies, political leanings, etc. This data is aggregated and cross-referenced with other users to create association maps — other people you know, how and when you interact with them, how close you are, and most importantly, how your interests and tastes relate to theirs.
This is literally billions of dollars’ worth of information they’re collecting on you. And they have a vested interest in getting you to strengthen these association maps; being “helpful” by suggesting things their algorithms say you might be receptive to — such as coupons from vendors you’ve done business with, or friending other people you may know. The kicker here is that you don’t even have to be a Facebook user for this system to work.
Now, all of the major players on the Internet do this. Many of them are companies you’ve never even heard of, such as DoubleClick, Akamai, Taboola, WebTrents, and so on. I call Facebook out here in my example because A) they’re not shy about what they’re doing, and B) their entire business model is based on it, unlike Microsoft and Google who actually have other products to sell.
Skype is owned by Microsoft. YouTube is owned by Google. Instagram is owned by Facebook. every time you use pretty much any online service, you cross-contaminate with other services you’ve used. Google knows who your Facebook friends are. Microsoft knows who your Gmail contacts are, and Facebook knows who your Hotmail contacts are. And all of them know more about you than your own mother does.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : H2ONaCl , Answer Author : Wes Sayeed
