Can people tell if you look at their social media? If so, how?

[Anonymous]

My friend is convinced people can always tell if you look at their social media profiles. But I don’t think she’s right. I know there is some stuff that gives it away (looking at Stories in Instagram, or if you look at their Facebook profile a bunch while logged in, I think the algorithm might give you away by putting you in their suggested friends list), but if you are just looking at a public profile while not logged in, I don’t see how they could ever find out.

I look at my ex’s public Twitter profile probably 3-4 times a week. It’s basically just habit at this point (I know this is bad for my mental health, you don’t need to tell me). I don’t think he could possibly know, but my friend is convinced he does. But how????

[Anonymous]

Twitter no. LinkedIn yes.

[Anonymous]

I always assume yes. Snapchat, LinkedIn and some parts of Instagram, definitely yes.

[Anonymous]

No, I don't think there's any way to tell. And the people who work backwards to try to figure out who is looking at their social media need to go to Michael's and pick out a craft kit to buy because they have way too much idle time.

Macrame > social media

[Anonymous]

I doubt it, but if you can, I think you would have to go extremely out of your way to do it. I know that there is some multi-step, obscure process you can do to see if people are opening your emails. But that’s rare (and nutty) and I doubt that there is something similar with Twitter. Even for a private account.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Twitter no. LinkedIn yes.

OP here. I knew about the LinkedIn one, too. Though there is a “private browsing” option where it won’t disclose your name. It means you also can’t see who viewed your profile, but it’s useful if you ever want to go on a “where are they now” binge if old classmates without any of them finding out!

What about Facebook or Instagram, other than stories? Is their any way for someone to know you are looking at their profile? I just can’t figure out how they would know, but my friend is convinced.

[Anonymous]

A hot young guy that I had a one-time extramarital fling with while on a business trip to South America a few years ago looks at every Insta story that I post. It's right there for the eyes to see.

[Anonymous]

Instagram stories, yes. Instagram profle or grid/feed, no.

Facebook, no. Twitter, no. Snapchat, yes. I'm not sure about TikTok, but I don't know anyone who personally makes TikToks.

Linkedin, if you are signed in (which is the only way to see a lot of things) yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Twitter no. LinkedIn yes.

OP here. I knew about the LinkedIn one, too. Though there is a “private browsing” option where it won’t disclose your name. It means you also can’t see who viewed your profile, but it’s useful if you ever want to go on a “where are they now” binge if old classmates without any of them finding out!

What about Facebook or Instagram, other than stories? Is their any way for someone to know you are looking at their profile? I just can’t figure out how they would know, but my friend is convinced.

The Facebook "stories" or whatever they call it, yes. The profile, no.

[Anonymous]

I'm convinced that FB and IG sometimes put non-friends who you look at in one another's "people you might know" lists. I had a creepy co-worker once who was always pressuring me for various details about my life -- the kind of person who I suspected might indulge in online sleuthing about me, in other words -- and despite having no friends in common he was constantly popping up as a "person you might know."

[Anonymous]

You can see a few things in Linkedin with no account. (I don’t have an account and use it to snoop on people.)

Facebook I don’t think they know either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm convinced that FB and IG sometimes put non-friends who you look at in one another's "people you might know" lists. I had a creepy co-worker once who was always pressuring me for various details about my life -- the kind of person who I suspected might indulge in online sleuthing about me, in other words -- and despite having no friends in common he was constantly popping up as a "person you might know."

Yeah, I think if you're going to do Facebook or Instagram sleuthing, it's dumb to do it while logged in with your real account because I do think sometimes the suggested friends can give it away. If you aren't connected to someone, might as well just look at their public profile while not logged in, or logged in with a dummy account.

I used to do background checks professionally and I had dummy accounts on all the social media sites for this specific purpose. But I discovered it's addictive -- poking around in strangers' social media inevitably led to me using those dummy accounts to look up friends, colleagues, former classmates, crushes, etc. It's a horrible black hole! I remember once becoming semi-obsessed with a high school classmate after discovering she is a bit of an IG influencer. I started looking at her account multiple times a day just to gawk. At first it was funny but eventually it feels weird. I had to go cold turkey and canceled all those dummy accounts because it was just a time suck and I didn't even enjoy it anymore, it was just compulsive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm convinced that FB and IG sometimes put non-friends who you look at in one another's "people you might know" lists. I had a creepy co-worker once who was always pressuring me for various details about my life -- the kind of person who I suspected might indulge in online sleuthing about me, in other words -- and despite having no friends in common he was constantly popping up as a "person you might know."

Yeah, I think if you're going to do Facebook or Instagram sleuthing, it's dumb to do it while logged in with your real account because I do think sometimes the suggested friends can give it away. If you aren't connected to someone, might as well just look at their public profile while not logged in, or logged in with a dummy account.

I used to do background checks professionally and I had dummy accounts on all the social media sites for this specific purpose. But I discovered it's addictive -- poking around in strangers' social media inevitably led to me using those dummy accounts to look up friends, colleagues, former classmates, crushes, etc. It's a horrible black hole! I remember once becoming semi-obsessed with a high school classmate after discovering she is a bit of an IG influencer. I started looking at her account multiple times a day just to gawk. At first it was funny but eventually it feels weird. I had to go cold turkey and canceled all those dummy accounts because it was just a time suck and I didn't even enjoy it anymore, it was just compulsive.

Anyone I’m snooping on in FB has multiple friends in common with me, so it’s pretty easy for me to come up as “people you may know” anyway. I don’t care. I see “people you may know” for friends of my cousin who live out of state and they’ve never heard of me and I’ve never heard of them. I don’t think that means they are snooping me.

[Anonymous]

So I'm pretty sure an old email account was hacked. Is there a way, obscure or not, to confirm who was getting into the account?

[Anonymous]

“People you may know” also connects you to people who have been close to you (or your phones have been close) recently. I’m a bartender and the day after my shift I sometimes see people who I served the night before.