This Is Why You Should Remove Your Phone Number From Facebook Right Now

A story from a psychotherapist who found that her patients started to be recommended each other as friends highlights the risks of giving Facebook your phone number.

If you give Facebook your number, the site will use your contact information to find you friends - sometimes with unexpected results.

A psychotherapist in a small town told Fusion that after she shared her phone number with Facebook, she started to be recommended her patients as ‘People You May Know’.

But then it got worse - the patients (who included people with serious conditions), started being recommended as friends to each other.

The psychotherapist said that one patient, ‘laughed and said, “I don’t know any of these people who showed up on my list— I’m guessing they see you.”’

‘He showed me the list of friend recommendations, and I recognized some of my patients.’

Many users are not even aware they ARE ‘sharing’ their mobile number in this way - to get rid of it, tap on your profile picture, then go to Update Info.

Facebook says, ‘Everyone who uses Facebook has control of the information they share, this includes the information people include within their profile, and who can see this information. Our Privacy Basics tool has a series of helpful guides that explain how people can quickly and easily decide what information they share and who they share it with.’