Gadgetory

just when you think social media couldn't get any worse there's now an app where people can rate you as a person I'm Bridget Carey this is your CNET update 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 people spelled with two E'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 to 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 people 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 comment 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 stressed that they're making this to better the world and that it's a positive place for sharing what others like about you here's how one founder explains it to someone she's talking to on the phone we want to clarify that this isn't this isn't like a judging website we don't want to we don't want to judge and that in the sense of being mean or you know we want to actually like bring the better out 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 the real name on Facebook if someone wants to make a comment about you the person has to give the site your phone number so you can get notified by a 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 to fend yourself by writing on your own profile even if the founders have good intentions this concept could be emotionally damaging to anyone that 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 four 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 out 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 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 Moorehead to see Netcom from our studios in New York I'm Bridget Carey