Facebook stalking much riskier now thanks to new Hello feature

Facebook has quietly introduced a new feature, and it makes online stalking a slightly riskier affair.

Facebook Hello is essentially Poke under a new name, but its placement on people’s profile pages is proving problematic.

You might not have noticed it yet, as it only started rolling out this summer and appears to still be in a testing phase.

If you visit a friend’s profile, you’ll notice a waving hand icon, captioned ‘Hello’, near the top of the page.

Clicking it won’t do a great deal – they’ll just receive a notification saying you’ve waved to them.

However, here’s where things get tricky. The Hello button also appears as an option on the profile pages of people you aren’t friends with.

What’s more, it's very prominent if you’re on the Facebook app or mobile site, sitting beneath the profile picture window, just to the left of the screen.

Users are complaining that it’s far too easy to accidentally tap, something that could prove rather embarrassing if you happen to be stalking a crush, which people apparently use Facebook for sometimes.

Others say they've selected Hello instead of Add Friend, a move they fear makes them appear starnge.

Fortunately, if you do happen to slip up and hit Hello when you didn’t want to, you can undo your mistake by tapping it again and hitting the Confirm option that pops up.

Alternatively, you could wait in hope for them to return your inadvertent wave.

The feature is almost exactly the same as the infamous Facebook Poke, but the Poke option hasn’t actually been retired.

It’s just a lot less visible these days, being hidden inside the More button.

Earlier this year, the social network launched Stories, which also makes it easier for you to work out which of your friends tend to stalk your updates online.