You’re probably fed up with Facebook prying into your personal life by suggesting random acquaintances or that one ex you’d really rather forget. It’s creepy, right? These notifications feel like invasive digital stalking and they just clutter up your notifications for no real reason at all.
But you can reclaim your privacy right now.
So, let’s kill those pesky alerts once and for all. Ready to take back control? It’s honestly a breeze.
How-to: Turn off “People You May Know” on the Facebook app
Over 98 percent of active user accounts worldwide access Facebook through a mobile device, which means most of us are fighting this battle on a small screen. It is honestly a bit of a maze because Meta loves to tuck these privacy toggles away in the deepest corners of the interface. You probably just want to scroll through your feed without seeing your dentist’s cousin or that guy you met at a bus stop once, but the app is designed to keep you “connected” at all costs.
But you can take control of your mobile experience by entering into the notification sub-menus. It’s not enough to just swipe the suggestions away when they appear on your timeline; you have to kill the source in the account settings. If you don’t do this, the app will just keep generating new lists every time you refresh your feed or add a new contact to your phone.
Step-by-step walkthrough you can actually follow
Mobile users spend an average of 33 minutes per day on the app, and a good chunk of that time is spent dodging unwanted “friend” recommendations. To stop the madness, you need to open your app and tap on your profile picture or the “hamburger” menu icon-usually found in the bottom right on iOS or the top right on Android. From there, you’ll need to navigate through a series of menus that seem like they were designed to confuse you.
So, once you are in the settings, you want to look for the “Notifications” section specifically. It’s weirdly hidden under the “Preferences” heading, but once you find it, you can finally toggle off the intrusive alerts. Use the table below to make sure you’re hitting the right buttons in the right order so you don’t end up accidentally changing your password or something.
Mobile App Navigation Steps
| Step | Action to Take |
|---|---|
| 1 | Tap the Menu icon (your avatar) in the corner of the screen. |
| 2 | Scroll down and select Settings & Privacy, then tap Settings. |
| 3 | Under the “Preferences” section, tap on Notifications. |
| 4 | Find the option labeled People You May Know in the list. |
| 5 | Switch the Allow Notifications on Facebook toggle to the off position. |
What to look out for so it doesn’t turn back on
Facebook’s algorithm updates happen about every few weeks, and these “silent” patches have a nasty habit of resetting your notification preferences to the default state. You might think you’re safe after following the steps above, but a major app update can sometimes wipe your custom settings without sending you a single alert. It’s super annoying to wake up and see those “suggestions” back in your notifications tab after you specifically told the app to stop.
And then there is the issue of contact syncing… which is a total trap. If you ever see a pop-up asking to “help you find friends faster” by uploading your phone book, you have to hit “Not Now” or “Deny” immediately. Because the moment you give the app permission to peek at your contacts, it will automatically restart the suggestion engine even if you had it turned off before.
Meta really doesn’t want you to leave this party.
Check your “Continuous Contact Upload” setting in the Media and Contacts section every once in a while to make sure it stayed off. Even if you think you’re in the clear, Facebook might still be hoarding your data in the background if this toggle is active. If it’s on, they’ll keep building a map of your social circle, making it way easier for those suggestions to creep back into your sidebar the moment you slip up or install a fresh version of the app.
How-to: Disable suggestions on Facebook desktop – quick and clear
Instead of scrolling through endless, cramped mobile menus, the desktop site gives you a bit more breathing room to find those buried toggles. It is funny how the desktop layout feels more “final” than the app, right? You will want to head straight to your profile icon in the top right corner-that little circle with your face in it. From there, it is a quick trip through the Settings & Privacy menu to find where Facebook hides its social nudges.
Once you are in the Notifications tab, scroll down until you see the People You May Know section. It is usually tucked away between “Birthdays” and “Groups,” almost like they are hoping you will miss it while looking for something else. You can toggle off the Allow Notifications on Facebook switch, which effectively kills the push alerts, emails, and SMS pings that try to link you with your high school gym teacher or that guy you met once at a wedding five years ago. It is a relief to finally have a quiet sidebar.
Exact clicks and settings on Facebook.com
While the mobile app is great for mindless scrolling, the desktop version is where you get the real granular control over your feed. You aren’t just clicking buttons; you are basically telling the algorithm to back off and leave your social circle alone. Sometimes you have to be firm with these platforms because they will default to the most intrusive settings possible if you let them. Do you really need to see a suggestion for your neighbor’s cousin every time you log in to check the news?
Getting it done requires a specific path that Facebook likes to update every few months just to keep us on our toes. You start by clicking your profile picture, then hitting Settings & Privacy, and then Settings again. On the left-hand sidebar, you will see a long list of options-find Notifications and click it. This opens the master list of everything Facebook can possibly bug you about, and you just need to find the right one to silence the noise.
- Click on the Notifications link on the left-hand menu.
- Scroll down to find the People You May Know category.
- Click the arrow to expand the options and find the Allow Notifications toggle.
- Turn off the main switch to disable all suggestions across push, email, and SMS.
This is the most effective way to stop the constant pings without deleting your account.
Browser tips and extensions that help if Facebook won’t cooperate
Sometimes Facebook acts like a stubborn toddler and keeps showing you those “suggestions” even after you have toggled every switch in sight. If the standard settings aren’t cutting it, you might need to bring in some third-party reinforcements to clean up the clutter. Browser extensions are absolute lifesavers because they let you hide specific CSS elements that Facebook’s native settings won’t let you touch… it is like having a digital pair of scissors to cut out the parts of the site you hate.
Setting these up takes about two minutes, and the difference is night and day. You just install the extension, open the settings panel within Facebook, and check the box that says “Hide People You May Know.” It’s a bit like putting on noise-canceling headphones in a crowded room. You can finally look at your News Feed without the algorithm trying to play matchmaker for your professional and personal life. And since these tools work on top of the site, Facebook’s internal “glitches” won’t affect them.
- Install F.B. Purity to get a massive list of customization options for your feed.
- Use Social Fixer if you want to filter out specific posts or “People You May Know” boxes.
- Check the Hide Right Column option in these extensions to clear out the sidebar entirely.
This puts you back in the driver’s seat of your own social media experience.
The beauty of using a tool like F.B. Purity is that it doesn’t just hide the notifications; it can actually scrub the People You May Know box right off your home feed. You’ll find the options under the “Hide Right Column Links” or “News Feed Filters” sections depending on which tool you pick. It’s a much more permanent solution for those who find the algorithm’s persistent “friend” suggestions to be a bit too much. Because let’s be honest, if you wanted to add those people, you would have searched for them by now.
- Open the F.B. Purity settings by clicking the “FBP” link at the top of your Facebook page.
- Navigate to the Hide Right Column section in the settings menu.
- Check the box for People You May Know to make it disappear from your desktop view.
- Hit Save and Close to apply the changes and refresh your feed.
This ensures that the annoying boxes never clutter your screen again.
Tips to stop friend suggestions from coming back
Nearly 90 percent of Facebook’s data collection happens behind the scenes through invisible trackers and background processes that most people never think twice about. You might think you’ve killed the beast by hitting a few buttons in the settings menu, but the algorithm is incredibly persistent and stays hungry for your data. To really stay off the radar, you’ve got to be proactive about your Privacy settings and stop leaving breadcrumbs for the AI to follow. It’s not just about toggling one switch; it’s about a Multi-layered approach to your digital footprint that keeps the “People You May Know” box empty for good.
And let’s be real, the feature is basically a digital stalker that won’t take a hint no matter how many times you ignore it. You’ve got to be smarter than the code. By managing your Account visibility and being extremely picky about who you interact with, you can finally get some peace and quiet on your timeline. It takes a bit of work – but it’s worth it to stop seeing your ex’s cousin or that guy from the grocery store popping up every five minutes.
- Disable Contact uploading in the mobile app immediately.
- Revoke Bluetooth permissions to stop proximity-based suggestions.
- Regularly clear your Off-Facebook activity to break the tracking chain.
- Audit your Third-party apps and remove anything you don’t use.
- Adjust your Privacy settings to limit who can look you up by phone number.
Tweak contact sync, Bluetooth, and phone permissions
Roughly 60 percent of the “friend” connections suggested to you come from metadata you didn’t even know you were sharing through your mobile device. If you’ve got Contact uploading turned on, you’re basically handing over your entire social circle – and their private info – to the algorithm. You need to examine your phone’s system settings, not just the Facebook app, and toggle off access to your Contacts. Why does a social media app need to know everyone in your address book? It doesn’t, but it uses those numbers to bridge the gap between you and people you might have met once ten years ago.
Don’t overlook the “Nearby” tracking either. Facebook uses Bluetooth permissions to see who you’re standing near at a party or a coffee shop, which is why that random person you talked to for two minutes suddenly appears in your feed the next morning. It’s creepy, right? Go into your device’s privacy menu and make sure Location Services is set to “Never” or at least “While Using” to stop the constant background pinging. Cutting off these Phone permissions is the most effective way to starve the algorithm of the real-world data it needs to find “friends” for you.
Small habit changes that make a big difference
Statistics suggest that the average user spends nearly 40 minutes a day on social media, providing thousands of data points for the algorithm to digest with every single scroll. Every time you linger on a profile or search for an old coworker out of curiosity, you’re feeding the beast. You’ve got to stop the “doom-scrolling” through the People You May Know feed because even a three-second pause tells the AI you’re interested in those people. It’s all about Data minimization and being intentional with where you tap. If you don’t want to see them, don’t look at them – it sounds simple but the algorithm is watching your eye movements (sort of).
Stop clicking on the “X” to remove suggestions constantly because, ironically, that’s still a form of engagement. The more you interact with the feature – even to dismiss it – the more Facebook thinks you’re paying attention to the people it’s showing you. Just ignore the box entirely and keep scrolling. It’s also a good idea to limit how many Third-party apps have access to your Facebook login. If you’re using Facebook to log into a fitness app or a game, those apps might be sharing your location or friend list back to the mothership without you even realizing it.
Try clearing your Search history every week to keep things fresh and prevent old connections from popping back up in your suggestions. It’s a quick habit that takes ten seconds but keeps your profile from feeling cluttered and tracked. You should also check your “Public” profile view to see what strangers see, as this often triggers the algorithm to suggest you to them in return. Recognizing how these small digital footprints add up is the only way to truly reclaim your privacy and keep your social feed strictly for the people you actually want to talk to.
Why does Facebook keep suggesting people I don’t know?
The factors Facebook uses – here’s what’s really happening
You’re sitting there, minding your own business, when a notification pings and it’s a suggestion for someone you’ve never seen in your life. Or maybe it’s that person you saw once at a conference three years ago and never actually spoke to. It’s weird, right? The algorithm is basically a giant vacuum cleaner, sucking up every tiny bit of data it can find to see if there’s a connection between you and some total stranger-even if it’s someone you haven’t thought about in a decade.
It isn’t just about who you’re friends with; it’s about the digital breadcrumbs you leave behind everywhere you go. If you’ve ever let the app access your phone contacts, it’s already mapped out your entire social universe, including people who aren’t even on the platform yet. They use mutual friends as the main hook, but they also look at things like being in the same Facebook Group or even just being in the same physical building at the same time. And because the system is so hungry for data, it will even use information from other Meta apps like Instagram to find a reason to put a new face in your feed.
- Contact Uploads: This is how Facebook knows about people in your address book who you might not have added yet.
- Shared Networks: Using the same Wi-Fi or being at the same GPS coordinates can trigger a suggestion hit.
- Search History: If you’ve ever searched for someone, expect to see them in your suggestions soon because the app thinks you’re interested.
Recognizing how these tiny details add up is the first step to understanding why your feed feels so crowded with people you barely know.
How those factors interact and what you can change
So how do all these pieces actually talk to each other to make a suggestion? It’s a weighted system where some actions count more than others. If you have fifty mutual friends with someone, you’re almost guaranteed to see them at the top of your list. But even a weak link-like having a phone number in common through a third-party app-can be enough to trigger the system. It’s all about probability and trying to keep you engaged with the app for as long as possible by expanding your network.
You can actually fight back by digging into your privacy settings and cutting off the data supply. One of the best things to do is stop the continuous contact uploading feature on your phone. If you don’t, Facebook just keeps refreshing its list of people to show you every time you add a new business contact or a random plumber to your phone. It’s a bit of a hassle to go through all the menus, but it’s the only way to stop the constant stream of “new” friends.
- Privacy Settings: These are your main defense against unwanted suggestions and data scraping.
- Contact Management: Deleting previously uploaded contacts can clear out old suggestions that shouldn’t be there.
- App Permissions: Denying location access stops the “people nearby” logic from filling your feed with strangers from the mall.
Assume that the more data you give the app, the more “strangers” it will try to introduce you to.
There’s also the weird reality of shadow profiles where the platform knows who you are based on what other people share. Even if you never synced your contacts, if five of your friends did and you’re in all of their phones, Facebook has a pretty good idea of who you should know. It’s a bit frustrating because you can’t control what other people do with their data, but you can try to mitigate this by limiting who can look you up using your email or phone number in the settings menu. Because at the end of the day, the algorithm is just a machine trying to guess your life based on the people around you.
- Lookup Settings: Restricting these makes you less visible to the algorithm’s automated search tools.
- Mutual Connections: These are the primary engine behind almost every suggestion you see on your home page.
- Profile Privacy: Keeping your friend list hidden prevents others from being suggested to you based on your own connections.
Assume that every connection you make is being analyzed to find the next person for your list.
Troubleshooting: When turning it off doesn’t seem to work
Cache, app versions, and account quirks that cause issues
You might think that clicking ‘off’ is like a light switch that kills the feature everywhere immediately, but Facebook’s architecture is a bit messier than that. If you’re still seeing those annoying faces pop up after toggling the setting, your app’s cache is likely holding onto old data to save on loading times. It’s super common for the mobile app to lag behind the desktop version, so try clearing your cache in your phone’s settings or just log out and back in to force a refresh… it’s annoying, but it works.
Sometimes an outdated app version is the culprit because old code doesn’t always play nice with new privacy toggles. Check the App Store or Google Play to see if you’re running a version from six months ago. And if you’re a “beta” tester for Facebook, you might be stuck with experimental bugs that ignore your preferences entirely.
Updating to the latest stable release is usually the quickest fix for these weird account quirks.
When to reach out to support or try account-level fixes
Most people assume that messaging Facebook support will get a human to go into their account and flip a secret switch, but let’s be real-you’ll probably never talk to a live person. Instead, use the “Report a Problem” tool if the toggle literally won’t stay in the ‘off’ position after multiple tries. It’s also worth checking your Off-Facebook Activity settings because if you’ve given third-party apps permission to share your contacts, Facebook might keep generating suggestions based on that data stream regardless of your notification settings.
If nothing else works, you might need to go for the “nuclear option” of deactivating and then reactivating your account after 24 hours. It sounds extreme, but it’s a classic way to reset the weird metadata loops that get stuck in the system. Just make sure you download your information first if you’re worried about losing anything, though a standard deactivation shouldn’t touch your photos or posts.
Checking your synced contact lists across the entire Meta ecosystem is the only way to stop the data flow for good.
And don’t forget to look at your linked accounts like Instagram or Meta’s newer platforms. Sometimes the “People You May Know” algorithm pulls from your synced contact lists, so disabling it on Facebook alone won’t stop the data flow if your phone contacts are still being uploaded to Instagram or Messenger. Because these apps share a backend, you have to sever the contact-syncing connection in every single app linked to your Meta Account Center to truly disappear from the suggestion engine.
My take on whether it’s worth the fuss – honest advice
You’re probably wondering if jumping through all these hoops is actually going to change your life or if it’s just another tech chore on your to-do list. Let’s be real – Facebook’s algorithm is like that one persistent neighbor who just won’t stop trying to set you up with people you haven’t seen since 3rd grade. Getting rid of these notifications stops the constant dopamine-loop interruptions that keep you glued to your phone for no reason.
If you value your mental peace and digital privacy, then yeah, it’s absolutely worth the five minutes it takes to toggle those switches. I’ve noticed that once those “suggestions” disappear, I’m way less likely to fall down a rabbit hole of “oh, I wonder what my ex-coworker’s sister is up to now.” It’s about taking back control of your attention span from a company that gets paid to steal it.
Pros and cons and what I personally do
I’ve personally kept my PYMK settings turned off for about three years now and I haven’t missed a single “important” connection. Most of the time, the people Facebook suggests are either random strangers you shared a bus with once or people you’re actively trying to avoid. Why would you want to give Meta more data about who you might know in real life? It’s a bit creepy when you think about how they use your location data and contact uploads to bridge those gaps.
But hey, some people actually like the serendipity of finding an old high school buddy without having to type their name into a search bar. If you’re someone who uses social media specifically to expand your professional network or find local hobby groups, maybe you keep it on. For the rest of us just trying to see photos of our nephews, it’s mostly just digital noise that clutters the interface.
Pros and Cons of Disabling PYMK
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Less digital clutter in your notifications feed. | Might miss out on reconnecting with old friends. |
| Reduces the urge to doom-scroll through stranger’s profiles. | Manual searching takes more effort. |
| Better privacy protection by limiting data links. | Algorithm might feel “less personalized.” |
| Fewer annoying push notifications on your lock screen. | Discovery of local groups might be slower. |
| Saves a tiny bit of battery life by reducing background pings. | New accounts might feel “empty” at first. |
| Avoids awkward suggested connections with exes. | Misses potential networking opportunities. |
| Prevents accidental friend requests from pocket-clicks. | Feed might feel repetitive without new faces. |
Practical privacy habits to keep going forward
Beyond just killing that one feature, you should really take a hard look at your app permissions on your smartphone. Did you know that Facebook can track your precise GPS location even when you aren’t using the app if you haven’t specifically told it not to? It’s wild how much we just “accept” during the initial setup without reading the fine print. Go into your phone settings and set location access to “Only while using the app” or “Never” to stop the creepy location-based suggestions.
Stop syncing your phone’s contact list with the app because that’s the main fuel for the “People You May Know” engine. If you’ve already done it, go into the settings and delete those uploaded contacts immediately. It feels a bit like cleaning out a messy closet – once it’s done, you’ll feel way lighter knowing your entire contact list isn’t sitting on a server in Menlo Park.
Maybe try using the mobile browser version of Facebook instead of the dedicated app if you want to be really hardcore about it. This limits the amount of background data the platform can scrape from your device’s hardware. It might be a bit clunkier to use but your privacy is a trade-off that’s usually worth the extra click or two. Plus, you’ll probably spend less time on the site overall because the user experience isn’t designed to be quite as addictive as the app version.
Setting these boundaries isn’t being paranoid, it’s being smart about your data.
Final Words
With this in mind, it’s pretty clear that social media platforms have been getting way more aggressive lately with their “suggested” content just to keep your eyes glued to the screen, and you’ve probably noticed your notifications blowing up with people you barely recognize from a summer camp twenty years ago or maybe your local barista. It’s getting a bit intrusive, isn’t it… maybe even a little creepy. So taking back your privacy by silencing these prompts is a smart move for your sanity. Because let’s face it-you don’t need an algorithm playing matchmaker with your past life every time you unlock your phone.
But the good news is that once you’ve toggled those settings off, the constant buzzing in your pocket finally dies down and you can browse in peace. You might still see the odd suggestion while you’re scrolling your main feed because Facebook is notoriously stubborn about letting go, but those nagging push alerts will be gone for good. And your digital space is going to feel so much cleaner without the clutter of unwanted friend recommendations.
It’s your profile and your choice, so make sure the settings actually reflect how you want to use the app.
