'Yelp for people' app developed in Canada greeted with online outrage
CBC News | Posted: October 1, 2015 9:45 PM | Last Updated: October 1, 2015
The internet doesn't agree on much, but when it does...
An app that allows users to rate people like they would rate a restaurant is scheduled for a November release, but it already has the internet up in arms.
Calgary-developed Peeple will allow users to rate other humans on a scale of one to five stars, much like a Yelp review.
All you need to create a profile for someone is their cellphone number. The subject of the profile cannot delete the comments or the rating, according to an article in the Washington Post.
"You're going to rate people in the three categories that you can possibly know somebody — professionally, personally or romantically," Peeple CEO and co-founder Julia Cordray told CBC Calgary in September. "So you'd be able to go on and choose your five-star rating, write a comment and you will not be anonymous."
Negative comments will sit unpublished in the person's inbox for 48 hours, giving them the opportunity to work out any disputes with the person who posted them, according to Peeple's website. If the dispute can't be resolved in that time, the comment will go live. The person can publicly defend themselves by commenting on the negative review.
According to the site, users must "agree" that they are 21 or over.
Cordray believes the app will help people make better decisions about who they interact with.
"You should have the right to know who somebody is before you invite them into your home, around your children. They become your neighbours, they teach your kids, you go on dates with them," said Corday.
It seems so far that few people on Twitter share her enthusiasm.