Backlash against Peeple, the app for rating human beings
Culture
Just when you think social media couldn't get any worse there's now an app where people can rate you as person.
I'm Bridget Carey, this is your cnet update.
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We use five star ratings for many things, like restaurants and movies, but now there's a site where people can post a rating and review about you as a human being.
And there's nothing you can do to take it down.
This frightening app is real.
It's called Peeple, spelled with two ee's.
Some say it's Yelp for people.
Anyone can make a profile of you and write up a review of what they think of you.
and you get ranked from 1-5 stars based on how good you are personally, professionally, and romantically.
So if you have a crazy ex that wants revenge they can theoretically give you one star, tell the world you're a bad person, and it'll be stuck there for anyone to see.
That's a nightmare that could hurt your chances of getting a job.
The peeple app is not live yet.
It's in beta testing with plans to go live in November, but it's already stirring up anger as people flood the company's social media accounts with negative comments, questioning the legality of this.
And the lack of privacy.
I reached out to the two female founders of this app for comments, but they have yet to get back to me.
They do have a YouTube channel where they documented the creation of their app and they stress that their making this to better the world and that its a positive place for sharing what others like about you.
Here's how one founder explained it to someone she's talking to on the phone.
We wanna clarify that this isn't a judging website.
We don't wanna judge in a sense of being mean or, we wanna actually bring the better out in people They will not allow profanity, hate speech, bullying, talk about your health or disabilities.
But you'll have to report it to get it taken down.
IT's hard enough for Facebook and Twitter to combat online abuse.
To make a post about someone, you have to connect with your Facebook account, but not everyone puts their real name on Facebook.
If someone wants to make a comment about you, the person has to give this Site your phone number so you can get notified by text message.
There are legal questions about getting unsolicited text messages from apps and you know there will be issues around defamation of character and libel.
You can't delete ratings but the best you can do is defend yourself by writing on your own profile.
Even if the founders have good intentions, this concept could be emotionally damaging to anyone who doesn't have a perfect rating.
Making mistakes is part of being human.
We experience regrettable moments, but we're also designed to move on, to heal from those bad moments.
But with this app, there's no healing.
It's there for anyone to see.
Although it promises for negative reviews to disappear after a year.
If this doesn't give you enough reason to run away from social media forever, then you may be interested in some changes coming now to Facebook.
The site is starting to test a new feature that lets some people put a short looping video clip as a profile photo.
And you can also create temporary Or a profile photos that only last for a set time and add a description to the top of your page.
That's it for this tech news update.
For more, head to cnet.com.
From our studios in New York, I'm Bridget Carey.
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