Facebook bans relationship-tracking Breakup Notifier app

Breakup Notifier, a Facebook app that was launched earlier this week and just a few hours ago had 3,673,484 users, is now blocked, as of Feb. 23. The app allowed a user to set up a list of Facebook members that they wanted the app to track. If the relationship status of the "object of their affection" changed, the app would email the user.

However, Facebook apparently didn't "like" the app, and it's now been shut down. Reportedly, it might have been the extreme number of API calls the app was making that triggered the ban. The email Breakup Notifier developer Dan Loewenherz received said:

“To ensure positive user experiences on Platform, we run routine automated screens that take user feedback, machine learning and various algorithms into account and remove spammy applications. For example, if an application is making an inordinate number of stream.publish calls and receiving a large number of user reports, it may be removed by our automated systems to protect the user experience and the Platform ecosystem.”

Ironically, Loewenherz had told MSNBC he was going to start charging users a couple of Facebook credits each for each person they tracked, starting today or tomorrow.

Obviously knowing a potential cash cow when he sees it (after all, no longer would a guy have to wonder if the girl he covets is single and unattached or not), Loewenherz told TC that “We’re willing to comply with whatever they want us to (within reason).” For some reason Loewenherz has seen his own personalFacebook account disabled, as well.