Apple has removed an Instagram stalking app called Like Patrol from the App Store after Instagram sent a cease-and-desist order to the developers (via CNET).
Like Patrol
Like Patrol was an app that called itself a way to “keep tabs on your partner’s likes on Instagram.” Critics called it stalkerware. Instagram itself had a similar feature, a tab called “Following.” This told people what posts and accounts their friends interacted with. Sergio Luis Quintero, founder of Like Patrol, referred to his app as “the defunct ‘Following Tab’, on steroids.
A Facebook spokesperson told CNET that Like Patrol was scraping data without user consent:
Scraping violates our policies, and we take action against companies who we find to be engaging in it. Like Patrol was scraping people’s data, so we are taking appropriate enforcement action against them.
In late October Instagram sent the developers of the app a cease-and-desist letter. Then, Apple recently removed it from the App Store.
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