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Facebook 'Stalker' App Takes Off

Tellingly, a "Break-up Notifier" app recently attracted over 100,000 Facebook users less than 24 hours after its debut. The new app lets users pick "friends" whose Facebook relationship status they'd like to monitor. "When that status changes, the stalker ... er -- user, is notified via email," the New York Daily News explains. Insisting that he only created the "Break-up Notifier" as a joke, the app's creator, Dan Loewenherz, tells the News: "I wasn't even sure if it was work at first." That it has taken off shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone familiar with Facebook and its common uses. Indeed, most users will admit to at least testing out the "stalking" capabilities of Facebook, which privacy advocates warn has great potential for evil -- a concern shared by Loewenherz. "I just really hope people use it for good, not evil," he tells the News. That said, "it's really a practical thing," he adds."

If you're going to refresh someone's page 20 times a day, why not have an alert on it?" And why not make a little money off people's compulsions? As such, Loewenherz plans to let users monitor two friends for free, then charge $5 to keep tabs on up to seven people using his new service.

 

 

Read the whole story at New York Daily News »

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