Peeple: The human-rating app with great potential for misuse

The internet is losing it over a new app that lets users give star ratings of everyone they know. There is no way to opt out of being judged.

Unlike Tinder, where you rate people aiming to end up with a match, Peeple is just for the sole purpose of rating people.

 

How does it work?

Much like a bed and breakfast or an Amazon review, the app asks users to award friends a star rating from one to five.

Users must enter other people’s mobile phone numbers into the app, and following this they are able to leave anonymous reviews.

Negative reviews can be removed, but only if users sign up to the app themselves.

 

Why did the app’s creators make Peeple?

“People do so much research when they buy a car or make those kinds of decisions,why not do the same kind of research on other aspects of your life?” said Julia Cordray, one of the app’s founders, to the Washington Post.

 

The problems

There is clearly great potential for misuse here. Although mother-of-two Nicole McCullough (who co-created the app) claims she built the programme to help her figure out who to trust with her children, this is clearly a tool that is going to be used for abuse. In a world of trolling, is Peeple a bad idea?