Facebook is all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Or until you realise that the company may not be completely in agreement with EU data privacy law. But yes, breaking up is hard, and the smatterings of kissing photos stored on the social network can quickly become a noose to strangle yourself with when relationships turn sour.
Aware that romantic relationships were very much a part of Facebook's original raison d'être, Mark Zuckerberg and co. have taken steps to smear a digital balm over being dumped. The company announced yesterday that it's testing a new set of tools that figuratively muffle a pillow over the mouth, eyes and ears of your ex-lover.
With the new features, when a user changes their relationship status they will be prompted with an option to “Take a Break”. Facebook says this means you'll “see less of a former partner's name and profile picture around Facebook without having to unfriend or block them. Their posts won't show up in News Feed and their name won't be suggested when people write a new message or tag friends in photos.”
Essentially, the tools (currently being trialled in the US on mobile) let you change what your ex can see without them being aware that you've done anything.
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