Facebook stalking has reached a whole new level following the introduction of an ‘ask’ button, allowing you to enquire about someone’s relationship status.
Users who have opted to leave their relationship status blank will soon be presented with a button through which friends can send a message.
You can choose whether to share your response with just the asker, or with your friends in the unlikely event you’d want your reply to be made public.
The social network began introducing ‘ask’ buttons for other sections including employer, phone number and hometowns in January, but has only now extended it to relationships.
The ask button has been rolled out across the majority of US users, and is likely to filter across the UK in coming weeks.
Earlier this year, Facebook released data proving it knows when you’re about to enter into a relationship via your interactions on the website.
Using anonymised, aggregated data, Facebook examined the average number of timeline posts shared between two people before they decided to change their status from ‘single’ to ‘in a relationship’.
During the 100 prior to this change, the researchers observed a slow but steady increase in the number of posts between the couple-to-be.
From the first day as a bona-fide couple, the amount of shared posts begins to decrease, which Facebook attributes to the couple deciding to “to spend more time together, courtship is off, and online interactions give way to more interactions in the physical world”.