How did Google know that i know this person?!?

Question

Ive been using a Google account ONLY to watch YouTube videos. There is absolutely nothing else i do on that account besides watch YouTube videos and comment. Didn t even have a Google plus, nor do i use it for emails.

Today i signed up for Google plus and right there on the first page under the heading "people you might know" is someone that i have been chatting with on Facebook. I don t use the same email to sign in Facebook...its not even the same provider! And that s not all. I didn t even add this person as a friend on Facebook! I don t have this person on anything at all! No phone number, email, twitter...nothing at all! Outside the chatting on Facebook, this person doesn t exist anywhere else in my circle. And get this. I didn t even know this persons last name. All i had was the first name and a nickname as a last name, which is the Facebook name. All of a sudden im seeing this person s full name on Google s add suggestion.

This is freaking me out! How does Google know?

Answer 1

All major sites like Google, Facebook, Apple, etc use cookie profiling to track your web browsing activities



They then use your browsing data to better serve ads. For example, if you're from 19 year old college student in USA , then you will be served education / job related ads and also find to people you may know on Facebook or Google Plus

http://venturebeat.com/2014/10/06/the-cookie-is-dead-heres-how-facebook-google-and-apple-are-tracking-you-now/



After simply logging into Google account, Google knows your search patterns, the kind of emails you receive, videos watched on YouTube, etc



If you don't want to be tracked, then use AdBlock Plus add-on to block all kinds of ads and disable tracking

https://adblockplus.org/features#tracking

Answer 2

Google could of done some things. Got your location from your IP or other things on your computer and found people near you. Or they took information.

Answer 3

Google knows everything.

Answer 4

Duckduckgo.