Humans are used to rating everything from restaurants to movies to cars. And now humans are rating something new: themselves.
A new app called Peeple will allow people to rate other people. The app, created by Nicole McCullough and Julia Cordray, is set to launch in November.
The service functions much like Yelp. Users will be able to put another person into a database and rate that person on a one to five scale. They can also leave comments about that person.
Perhaps most scary is the fact that once a person is on Peeple, they cannot request to be taken off.
As one might expect, many people are not happy about Peeple.
The Washington Post’s Caitlin Dewey wrote, “Unfortunately for the millions of people who could soon find themselves the unwilling subjects, make that objects, of Cordray’s app, her thoughts do not appear to have shed light on certain very critical issues, such as consent and bias and accuracy and the fundamental wrongness of assigning a number value to a person.”
Others in the tech press have dubbed the app “slander as a service.”
Some of the controversial features include the inability for a person to opt-out, the ability to respond to the posts of others, and the lack of a secure database.
One unique aspect is the fact that the app will wait two days before making negative reviews public. This will give the person who received a poor review to talk to the person who rated them poorly to see if a compromise can be reached.
However, if the negative reviewer still wants to leave the poor review, you can be sure that it’s going to be posted.
The creators of Peeple say that they want the service to be used by employers and recruiters in determining if a candidate is right for a job.
A post on the app’s website says, “This app will allow us to better choose who we hire, do business with, date, let babysit our kids, become our neighbors, roommates, landlords/tenants, and teach our children.”
The website does not list any privacy policies or terms of services.
So while some people are clearly displeased about Peeple, it appears as of now that the app will soon be headed to an app store near you.
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