I came across this article which I must definitely share with you guys as I'm very interested to know your thoughts on this. For your convenience, I have copied the excerpts from the article here:
"Imagine a database that allows you and everyone you know to be ranked, classified and reviewed by someone you've dated, worked with or befriended, without their consent.
Welcome to Peeple, described by the founders as a "positivity app." When it launches in November, Peeple will allow users to rate and search human beings in the same way we rank and file restaurants, hotels, and car services on scores of other apps.
But critics fear that it will devolve into a virtual "Burn Book", a la Mean Girls, that will allow gossip and shaming to thrive. Users will be able to add virtually anyone to the service, and people are unable to opt out of having reviews posted about them, adding to concerns over the invasive nature of the app.
When the app launches in November, users will be able to review friends, coworkers, dates and pretty much anyone else, using a one- to five-star rating scale. The app, founded by Julia Cordray and Nicole McCullough, will be available only on iOS devices in November. It's already had thousands sign up to be beta testers, according to a post on the Peeple Facebook page. The company’s shares currently put its value at $7.6 million, according to the Washington Post.
In order to post a review, users have to be 21 or older with an active Facebook account. Reviews must be made under a person's own name, and a user must indicate how they know the person they will review in one of three categories: Personal, professional or romantic.
Anyone who has access to someone's cellphone number can start a new profile for them on the site. The person will receive a text informing them who started their profile and "that they should check out what you said about them on our app." The FAQ's make no mention of how the site will check on the validity of the number provided. Once someone is added, anyone on Peeple can weigh in on his or her merits as a person."
Question 1: Although it says users have to be 21 or older with an active Facebook account in order to be able to post a review, now honestly, we all know people can easily fake their birth age in order to be old enough to have an FB account right?
Question 2: I would hate it if someone I know added me into this app without my consent. As if surrendering my personal mobile phone number to an app is not scary and violating my privacy enough, what will happen to my contact details being added to this app then?
Question 3: Now what if people slanders you and post lies about you? You know, you may have accidentally annoyed someone, or someone just can't stand you and decided to give you a taste of some bitter envy medicine and cooked up some stories about you...
"Peeple's founders assert that they have systems in place to combat bullying on the site. Users will be able to "report any bullying in the comments you receive and we will be able to remove the comment and remove the user who violated our terms and conditions." Essentially, the ability to remove content deemed as "bullying" is left up to the site operators' discretion."
Now even though users can report any bullying in comments and those comments and/or users can be removed, the damage would've been done and too late, no? In this day of modern technology where everything happens in split seconds and goes by when you just blink... screenshots taken and reposted to other social medias and made to go viral, what use if the comments were removed then?
I personally think this app is a bad bad idea. Of course some of you have said that if done properly it might be good to have another channel to check out the reputation of such and such person etc, but seriously, is that even possible nowadays? There are people out there who just have nothing but nasty stuff to say about every single thing. No matter how, there is just a way they can find to point out negative stuff about things. Imagine the damage this will inflict to innocent unknowing people? Imagine people who made mistakes and learned from their lessons and have vowed to turn a new leaf and would like to move on with their life and then all of a sudden being brought back to their past and then constantly reminded of their past history?
What do you think?
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