back to article Slander-as-a-service: Peeple app wants people to rate and review you – whether you like it or not

This could be the most odious idea the internet manages in 2015: Peeple is an app that lets people rate other people, whether they like it or not, and plans to launch in November. The Yelp-like defamation-as-a-service – someone can put you in a database that you can't be taken off, rate you 1-to-5, and comment on you as a …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I have all the social graces of a warthog, and when in high dudgeon, a passed off one at that. It may have escaped y'alls noticing but, somehow I doubt it. So if I end up on peeple I shall wear my dishonor with pride!

    1. g e

      Pah you have nothing to fear!

      Having Googled for these two women I think I know where the Arnie got the inspiration for the 'creepy grin' in Terminator Genisys.

      Maybe I'll even post that on their site under their name for whichever bimbo it is that looks like the joker.

      1. J. R. Hartley

        Re: Pah you have nothing to fear!

        Sorry, but as a pedant it is my duty to inform you that the aforementioned creepy grin originated in the director's cut of Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Apologises to all those involved.

    2. I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects

      Me Twothe only problem is...

      > I shall wear my dishonour with pride!

      But I fear we will be lost in the inundation about the two pink skanks founding it.

  2. getHandle

    Wonder what will happen...

    When the CEO finds herself on there and is torn to shreds by every involuntary participant?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Wonder what will happen...

      When the CEO finds herself on there and is torn to shreds by every involuntary participant?

      I suspect you'll discover that the names of the executives get the Zuckerberg treatment: somehow, that won't be public.

      Is the pool of innovation so far dried up that people have to go for crap that can ONLY cause harm? Given that this happening in the land of the lawyers free, I give this until it turns a bit of profit before it is sued into the ground for libel, forcing it to disclose downvoter identity.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Wonder what will happen...

        "before it is sued into the ground for libel, "

        The whole USP of this appalling site is that the US has almost no protection against libel other than extremely large amounts of money.

        However, the fact remains that people will not merely be putting information on the site; they will be rating other people using methods provided by the site operators. To me that looks like an argument against common carrier.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Wonder what will happen...

          The whole USP of this appalling site is that the US has almost no protection against libel other than extremely large amounts of money.

          Good point, although I suspect that exactly the people that *have* that sort of money will appear on the site first, and I give it about 10 seconds live before this will go political. I'm willing to bet that one of the first people to appear on there will be Trump, and I want to watch that when he decides he doesn't like it - he's not exactly known for his gentle, diplomatic touch.

          That's worth prepping popcorn for, I think, but I suspect you won't be halfway through the bag before the site is a smoking hole in the data centre :).

          1. rh587

            Re: Wonder what will happen...

            "and I give it about 10 seconds live before this will go political. I'm willing to bet that one of the first people to appear on there will be Trump, and I want to watch that when he decides he doesn't like it - he's not exactly known for his gentle, diplomatic touch."

            Apparently you add people using their phone number. They get an SMS informing them they have been added and is supposed to ensure that "you can only add and rate people you know".

            Clearly the developers have never heard of doxxing. It may be 10 minutes before someone gets Trump on there rather than 10 seconds, but he'll end up there nonetheless.

          2. This post has been deleted by its author

            1. Danny 14

              Re: Wonder what will happen...

              Obama, goats, party. That should get the site taken down pretty quickly. Or Putin, closet gay might get the owners shot.

              I'd advise a VPN chain to a remote browser using TOR.

      2. John Gamble

        Re: Wonder what will happen...

        Given that this happening in the land of the lawyers free, ...

        Erm... Corday and McCullough are in Calgary. Which is not in the U.S.

        I grant you there will probably be something incorporated in Delaware, the anyone-can-be-a-corporation state.

    2. Eddy Ito

      Re: Wonder what will happen...

      Don't forget the business model is selling out all the personal details of involuntary participants. If anybody ever hands my phone number to scum like this they are going to get a rather nasty phone call from me.

      I also wonder what happens if they wind up flooded with wrong numbers. Heck I just got a phone call asking for someone named Jane, what if I get a text from this vinegar and water pair letting me know that Jane was just ratted on pee-pal? What recourse does poor Jane have?

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: Wonder what will happen...

        "pee-pal?"

        Oh good, I'm not the only one who read it that way!

  3. Mark 85

    And so another crock of crap gets dumped upon the world. Is this stuff invested in and promoted by lawyers? I smell the seed of lawsuits being fertilized by the BS they're shoveling.

    1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

      What lawsuits

      This is illegal in more than half of the world on basic data protection grounds, defamation law, libel law and god knows what else. It would take less than a day or two to get an injunction and a week to make it permanent to shut down a service like this in Europe on basic data protection grounds. The same goes for at least some USA states which have a basic resemblance of data protection legislation.

      It will be interesting which jurisdiction will this operate in. I do not see it working in California and New England states. They all have legislation this runs afoul of.

      1. Christoph

        Re: What lawsuits

        "but you can bet the terms and conditions will tell you the service will be covered by the laws of the State of California (or perhaps Delaware)."

        But that is irrelevant. The person who signed up to those conditions is not the person being slandered. They can put whatever they like in the T&Cs but it makes not the slightest difference to the person suing them - except maybe proving that the site as well as the user is liable.

  4. heyrick Silver badge

    Ha ha. "This video has been removed by its user". Deletion good enough for them; good enough for the rest of us.

    I'd like to see how far the "covered by the laws of X" go when this app crashes into British libel law; especially given that you don't need to accept their Ts&Cs if somebody else can add you and rate you and you aren't even a user.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @heyrick

      I think you don't understand this. It would mean they are covered by such and such law not the people making the comments.

      1. heyrick Silver badge

        Re: @heyrick

        I'll reach for a bag of popcorn; as wouldn't some jurisdictions consider their app to be the entity publishing and disseminating the content in question, regardless of who put it there?

        Another on Peeple enjoying the right to deletion: https://m.facebook.com/comment/replies/?ctoken=1052702411430776_1054608977906786&count=16&showcount=13&ft_ent_identifier=1052702411430776&gfid=AQCRXnMmugF4EZnk

    2. Dr Dan Holdsworth
      WTF?

      I wonder what happens when someone merely tries to force UK ISPs to drop this site from their DNS (or similar mostly-effective censorship method) due to libel problems?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Self-defence

    >You can respond to a nasty-gram, but Peeple won't delete stuff just because it's unbiased, unfair, or flat-out untrue.

    So a bit like the database used for DBS (CRB) checks then, or virtually any police database.

    Wouldn't be surprised if it is a state funded site, what better way to fill your boots than getting other people to do it. Now what's the name of the head of my local police force, I hear he's been a naughty boy.

    1. Stoneshop
      Trollface

      Re: Self-defence

      The way I read their T&C, your rating will be deleted if you get rated by someone you don't know.

      I foresee a lot of people not knowing who the fsck rated them negatively.

  6. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Go

    Cybersharknado soon?

    Let's do this!

  7. Roq D. Kasba

    Antisocial Media

    The next big thing.

    1. Elmer Phud

      Re: Antisocial Media

      Fuck off!

    2. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
      Happy

      Re: Antisocial Media

      Antisocial Media

      The next big thing.

      In the week that Facebook announced their dislike button is finally going to happen too, you bastard.

      1. Tim Warren

        Re: Antisocial Media

        ... Antisocial network. Lol. I'm off to register www.getoutofmyfacebook.com.

    3. Turtle

      @ Roq D. Kasba Re: Antisocial Media

      All "social media" is, to some degree, "anti-social" media, only in this particular case it's rather more extensive and rather more overt than usual.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    I may be sexist....

    .... but why I'm not surprised this gossip app has been created by two women?

    And this is also a huge ad against "we need more women in tech!"

    1. Teiwaz
      Unhappy

      Re: I may be sexist....

      Certainly matches the criteria for really nasty vicious girls-school bullying and intimidation that often ends up with a suicide.

      Pretty much the worst resulting idea formulated from the nastiest teenage vendetta impulses.

      The women contemplating this are going to end up creating the kind of really damaging traumas of the like so far inflicted by the likes of revenge porn sites.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I may be sexist....

        It's OK - we've disowned them already. Members of Homo sapiens they may allegedly be, but that's no reason to smear us women with the tar that those two creatures so richly deserve.

        Their utterly anti-social creation falls firmly under the heading of 'just because you CAN do it doesn;t mean that you SHOULD'.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I may be sexist....

          It's OK - we've disowned them already

          LOL, I always thought "defrocking" to be an entirely different event :). He did put a joke icon on it anyway, and I think we can assume that members of either sex that attend this site have at least a functional sense of humour and a liking of the absurd :).

        2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: I may be sexist....

          "Their utterly anti-social creation falls firmly under the heading of 'just because you CAN do it doesn;t mean that you SHOULD'.

          ...but since it will make us rich, fuck'em, lets DO IT!!!

          Maybe I've seen too much US TV and films, but they look like the stereo-type rich sorority girls who get everything handed to them on a plate and never, ever see any "bad stuff" because the world is just all pink and full of fluffy bunnies and pink unicorns and pink...erm...stuff. The sort who can hand out nasty put downs with a big creepy grin and then wonder why "other people" not part of "their" group get upset.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I may be sexist....

      I may be sexist....

      .... but why I'm not surprised this gossip app has been created by two women?

      That has an uncanny resemblance to the "I appreciate that this is probably horrendously politically incorrect but that is a stunning picture" statement by Alex Carter-Silk so I hope that your post won't be seen by Charlotte Proudman (she of "I will publish this private conversation because I think he is sexist" fame)...

  9. dan1980

    The way Cordray defends/justifies the service by saying that "innovators are often put down because people are scared and they don’t understand" smack of the defence that so many cranks trot out: "they laughed at Einstein". (The Wright Brothers, Columbus, Galileo, etc . . .)

    You're not "innovators" and the reason people are against your idea is not because they "don't understand"; you are taking an existing idea (ratings) and applying it to a different target (people rather than businesses) and the reason people think that's a rubbish idea is because it bloody well is.

    1. Francis Boyle Silver badge

      They laughed at the inventor of the gas mask bra as well

      Not really relevant - I just like to laugh at the inventor of the gas mask bra.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Innovators are good when they conceive true new clever ideas that make life better. Innovating just for the sake of changing may lead to stupid or dangerous ideas. Even Jonathan Swift mocked innovators like those...

      "persons went up to Laputa [...] came back with a very little smattering in mathematics, but full of volatile spirits acquired in that airy region: that these persons, upon their return, began to dislike the management of every thing below, and fell into schemes of putting all arts, sciences, languages, and mechanics, upon a new foot."

      You'd call that "disruptive", today....

      "“That he had a very convenient mill within half a mile of his house, turned by a current from a large river, and sufficient for his own family, as well as a great number of his tenants; that about seven years ago, a club of those projectors came to him with proposals to destroy this mill, and build another on the side of that mountain, on the long ridge whereof a long canal must be cut, for a repository of water, to be conveyed up by pipes and engines to supply the mill, because the wind and air upon a height agitated the water, and thereby made it fitter for motion, and because the water, descending down a declivity, would turn the mill with half the current of a river whose course is more upon a level.” He said, “that being then not very well with the court, and pressed by many of his friends, he complied with the proposal; and after employing a hundred men for two years, the work miscarried, the projectors went off, laying the blame entirely upon him, railing at him ever since, and putting others upon the same experiment, with equal assurance of success, as well as equal disappointment.”"

      (Gulliver's Travel, Part III, Chapter IV, Balnibarbi).

    3. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      This reminds me of the DISC analysis that a corporate bullshiter consultant wanted to put everyone through. I'd not heard of that one, but it's similar to Myers Briggs, in that there's no scientific basis for it - but it's an amazing tool for sorting people into handy personality types so you can patronise them properly.

      Apparently if you retake the test a couple of days later, 50% of the time you'll get a totally different result.

      Anyway the website of the company what do it has this little blurb about why the test is great, and not at all sinister, oh no. And it says something like, if people are against this test, it's probably because they feel they've got something to hide. Nice!

      Still, at least they're just greedy and incompetent. They're not actively harmful, unlike this charming new website.

      Sometimes I think we should have special cases were lawyers are banned in disputes, and the decision is completely down to the weight of numbers on each side, and how many iron bars they happened to have brought along. The owners of the site might find themselves slightly outnumbered...

      1. Stoneshop
        Mushroom

        Lawyers

        Sometimes I think we should have special cases were lawyers are banned in disputes, and the decision is completely down to the weight of numbers on each side, and how many iron bars they happened to have brought along. The owners of the site might find themselves slightly outnumbered...

        A couple of lawyers won't make a difference regarding being outnumbered or not, but it'll be increasing the motivation on the side of the bar-wielders.

      2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        The owners of the site might find themselves slightly outnumbered..."

        Sadly, I fear you may be mistaken if the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Mumsnet are anything to go by. Especially the denizens of Mumsnet.

  10. Sampler
    Joke

    Could be great for dating

    Well groomed, hygienic, good with hands, would date again, four stars..

    1. Dr. E. Amweaver

      Re: Could be great for dating

      "Poor hygiene and strange smells in downstairs area, would not eat there again"

      --me, reviewing local Jamie's Italian.

      What?

      1. Danny 14

        Re: Could be great for dating

        Nipped out for kebab half way through, passed out drunk. But had Guinness in fridge so 2 stars.

  11. JimmyPage Silver badge
    FAIL

    "Peeple"

    why did I immediate think of "Menshn" ?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Anonymous...

    ...will be waiting, I'm sure...

  13. Pen-y-gors

    "This could be the most odious idea the internet manages in 2015"

    Nah, there's three whole months still to go. I'm sure some smartarse will manage to go further. Rate-my-scabs.com? review-my-mastectomy-scars.com? laugh-at-a-cripple.com?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "This could be the most odious idea the internet manages in 2015"

      "laugh-at-a-cripple.com?"

      Considering how much television nowadays is the equivalent of just that - though mainly with intellectually or emotionally disabled people - it isn't much of a stretch.

      Our ancestors visited Bedlam to laugh at the lunatics, we have Big Brother and its many, many offspring.

      1. Turtle

        @Arnaut the less re: "Laugh-At-A-Cripple.com"

        "laugh-at-a-cripple.com"

        Maybe I'm naive, but I actually tried to log on to that site. Turns out, very surprisingly, that it doesn't exist. Color me gobsmacked.

        Well here's the cripples - emotional cripples, at any rate - that I'm laughing at: McCullough and Cordray. I hope this follows them around for the rest of their lives. Because it really says something about them as people, or as they might prefer to have it, peeple.

  14. VinceH
    Facepalm

    I note from the Washington Post article that if someone doesn't sign up for Peeple, only positive reviews will appear for them - which sounds like the developers have tried (and failed) to address the obvious objection.

    The reason they've failed to address the problem is because like everybody that is publishing personal details online, they are undoubtedly 100% confident that their servers are entirely secure and will never be prised open and the contents spewed out for everyone to see, including those negative reviews that haven't appeared on the system - and they will continue to be 100% confident of that... until it happens. (At which point, it will only have "affected a small number of people")

    Another problem: They're using people's mobile phone numbers as a means to ensure a "reviewer" knows the person they're talking about (and presumably the same for anyone checking out the reviews - else how does someone distinguish between John Smith, John Smith, John Smith, and John Smith?)

    Which is great... unless it's bloody easy for random people to get your mobile number, which for some of us it (necessarily) is.

    The idiocy is strong in this one.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Which is great... unless it's bloody easy for random people to get your mobile number, which for some of us it (necessarily) is.

      Facebook, Google and LinkedIn all have those, "for our security" (nope, never provided mine either)..

    2. TheOtherPhil

      Exactly... Some of us make our contact details available on purpose - but that won't stop the wrong ones being used.

      As someone with an unusual surname you'd think it would be difficult to mix me up with anyone else; except there's someone with the exact same name, same age (within a couple of months) same geographic area, same business sector, and no relation. I get his linkedin requests and sales calls all the time.

      Just hope he's not upset anyone lately.

    3. Turtle

      Re: Only "Positive" Reviews.

      "if someone doesn't sign up for Peeple, only positive reviews will appear for them"

      Who the fuck is going to vet all the reviews to see which are actually positive? Oh, I know! They are going to implement an easily-defeated algorithm, of the same type, no doubt, that enables Craig's List to keep children off of their prostitution pages.

      Are they possibly attempting to deceive themselves, in addition to everyone else?

      1. VinceH

        Re: Only "Positive" Reviews.

        "Who the fuck is going to vet all the reviews to see which are actually positive? Oh, I know! They are going to implement an easily-defeated algorithm,"

        Quite literally, yes.

        The Washington Post article mentions that the "reviews" will be accompanied by a five star rating - and I can't see it now in that article, so I may have read it in the early hours elsewhere (El Reg's own Chris Williams tweeted some links about it), but the fools behind it said something along the lines of one or two star reviews would be considered negative (three presumably being neutral and four/five stars being positive).

        If so, to get a negative review about someone instantly published, accompany your review with three stars.

        As I said, the idiocy is strong with this one.

        I'd also like to know what happens when a victim changes their mobile phone number. (One member of my family seems to do this on a regular basis.) Will it end up with multiple profiles for one person if that person doesn't actually create an account so it can track their number changes?

        1. Turtle

          @VinceH Re: Only "Positive" Reviews.

          Thanks for the response.

          Here's a sample review: FOUR STARS Her skills were mediocre but she was reasonably clean and only wanted $20. And she was nice enough to warn me about her shall we say "medical condition" - not everyone will do that. I've paid more for better but I've also paid more for worse.

          Any algorithm that will catch that will make it impossible to talk about vast swathes of human relations.

  15. This post has been deleted by its author

  16. My-Handle

    Want to opt out?

    Make a comment against your own phone number, listing the name as "####" or some other useless string of characters. Leave a similarly useless comment. I'm guessing that the app limits one name per phone number, and if they don't delete profiles then no-one will be able to create another, more accurate profile with your actual name.

    Hey, why not write a trivial script to post comments against large swathes of phone numbers, naming each of them as "####". Let's see what Peeple does about that. Remember, no deleting profiles.

    Although, I didn't see anything anywhere stopping someone creating a profile about you using the WRONG phone number. That would leave people with no way of opting out, responding, or even being aware of such a comment being made...

    1. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: Want to opt out?

      > I didn't see anything anywhere stopping someone creating a profile about you using the WRONG phone number.

      Well it is going to be fun seeing how they manage multiple profiles for all those people with common names like "John Smith" ....

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It is the nature of the www

    Rather than liberating people, exclusion or confrmity is what you get.

    You have to be mindless to survive.

  18. PassiveSmoking

    They are going to get the shit sued out of them. And honestly, they deserve it.

  19. Elmer Phud

    Several born every minute . . .

    "and we will not apologize for that because we love you enough to give you this gift. We know you are amazing, special, and unique individuals"

    Sheep spotted -- led towards the abbatoir.

    They might moan later but the social engineering comes straight from the Dummies Book of Scammers.

    Can they be offered an 'online security scan' at the same time?

  20. Dr. E. Amweaver
    Paris Hilton

    Things...

    Too many things to say on this one. I really need the reg to introduce bullet points. Or a powerpoint upload.

    In brief:

    - Founders claim they believe people are "genuinely good". Have they been on this thing called "the Internet" lately? Even basic commenting functions get abused in more creative and imaginative ways than the most paranoid, tinfoil-hatted mod can code against. This isn't just feeding the trolls, it's giving them a smørgasbørd. Which is, of course, pleasingly Norwegian on both counts.

    - Founders are upset that multiple fake profiles of them have been created in the last 24 hours. Sheesh. Imagine that. People using your information without your knowledge to criticise you. Irony is clearly not their strong suit.

    - Somewhere out there, $5m of VC money and $50k of US government grants went into producing this. I'd like to meet those funders, as I've been busily adding value to Tower Bridge through monitoring, rating and curating the footfall on a daily basis, and I believe that gives me rights to resell shares in the bridge and its traffic.

    - The whole thing is probably a PR stunt for Charlie Brooker's new Netflix series. Or if it's not, their PR team need to hire those two immediately.

    1. hplasm
      Flame

      Re: Things...

      "introduce bullet points. Or a powerpoint upload."

      With regard to Powerpoint, you really need to use hollow-nosed bullets. And then cleansing fire.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Things...

        But moot is gone...

        Fuck, meant to reply to the one below...

        I guess I'm an idiot.

      2. Dr. E. Amweaver

        Re: Things...

        Excellent point. However,my company recently adopted Prezi,which takes eight times as long to do and is by default public forever. Making it private is (a) tricky and (b) costs. So if ANYTHING deserves to feel the flames…

    2. Shades

      Re: Things...

      "I really need the reg to introduce bullet points"

      El Reg did, a while ago, but you need at least a bronze commentard badge for the HTML to work. See HERE for more details.

      Note to El Reg: Can you please put anchors in the above referenced page so we can directly link to sections of it?

      Yes, I realise this is OT but I'm trying to get my post count up to get my badge back (I lost it after briefly finding something called a "life")... I found the extra formatting really useful.

      1. Steven Raith

        Re: Things...

        " (I lost it after briefly finding something called a "life")"

        I...I don't understand....?

        Steven "not getting out much" R

        PS: Oh, as per everyone elses comments, this'd be hilarious if (as we must assume) it weren't real. It sounds like one of those things they came up with in The IT Crowd.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    isn't

    So... lets see how long the system lasts if /b/tards go on a mission to add every celebrity/world leader and make truly terrible claims about them. Of course the founders would be at the top of the list of people to add.

  22. Andy 73 Silver badge

    What is actually annoying

    ..is that those of us with the technical ability to create a decent X-as-a-service app/website/whaterver, and the self awareness and maturity to recognise the difference between a good idea and a very silly one are then faced with the challenge of getting press attention for our projects.

    Yet a train-wreck like this can sail through everyone's sanity screens and land slap in the middle of a few international publications as a funded 'ongoing' (for the moment) business.

    I appreciate that the ability to market an idea is a separate skill from the abilities to conceive or implement it, but it still grates.

  23. me_fotografy

    This has 'deformation of character lawsuit' written all over it. It's a really bad idea to go down this road.

    1. Alister

      This has 'deformation of character lawsuit' written all over it.

      Interesting concept, bent, but not broken...

      I think you meant defamation...

      1. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

        I must admit that I like his version better, though. :)

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    hopefully be ignored, but...

    I should hope any employer - certainly any you might care to work for - would have the nouse and intelligence to pretty much disregard anything this thing might have to 'say'.

    That said, the scary thing is that while official influence from such a sewage feed might not be part of corporate hiring policy, people and bias are human - and how can you prove that you didn't get that interview / job because of something written about you?

    What makes me sad however is the continued commoditisation of the human experience. Getting to know people, make friends, hiring - all used to take judgment, time and experience. And if you met someone you didn't get along with, well then that's all part of the tapestry I'm afraid.

    Equally scary is how well this will be received by the post-millenial generation who only know each other via glowing rectangles. To them, this will be no bother at all.

  25. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

    We're the social network for people who hate people...

    We don't have a large number of users.

  26. Zog_but_not_the_first
    WTF?

    "Murder my mate"

    Bitcoins accepted.

    Coming soon?

    Christ, I despair some days.

    1. Stevie

      Re: "Murder my mate"

      Ooh!

      Would you like to partner and help me design "StrangersOnATrain.com"?

      "Putting like-minded individuals in touch with each other so they can enact peer-to-peer synergistic transport-agile solutions to life's little problems".

  27. Natalie Gritpants

    Time to register some premium rate mobile numbers

    and slag myself off for profit

    1. Steven Raith

      Re: Time to register some premium rate mobile numbers

      You can do that with a webcam and a paypal lin...oh, slag yourself off.

      My mistake, carry on.

      Steven "Don't know what you're talking about" R

  28. robwho

    This is an old business model.

    So. How is this different from Credit Rating Agency?

  29. Roger Kynaston
    Mushroom

    F*wits

    Is all there is to say.

  30. MotionCompensation

    Hello dear,

    Seems you have a very negative review on the Peeple app. Our People Review Deletion Service can take care of this for you.

    Please send 0.1 Bitcoin to the addresses below to get your review deleted within 24 hours, no questions asked.

    Yours truly,

    Dr. Trustful,

    Nigeria

  31. Joseph Haig
    Mushroom

    What could possibly go wrnog?

    Considering how rational and well meaning everyone is on Twitter I cannot see any possible problem with this.

    (I think the icon is suitable for how the internet might look about a week after this is releases)

  32. Fonant

    Have you watched the videos? They are so corny, scripted, and full of meaningless buzzwords I'm almost certain this is a massive viral hoax.

    I think it's very clever, and very sophisticated hoax. Just about good enough to be believable, and obviously bad enough that people will spread the word like wildfire!

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      "I think it's very clever, and very sophisticated hoax. Just about good enough to be believable, and obviously bad enough that people will spread the word like wildfire!"

      Yes, that has crossed my mind too. Maybe it's another "Carlos hoax"?

  33. RegW

    Bizzzt bizzzzt

    Perhaps these people are really genuine about helping society identify good and bad people. Perhaps they simple don't understand that the bad people have access to the internet as well. There are some really unpleasant people out there that are going to abuse their efforts.

    I think that's really sad.

    Anyway ...

    Igor. IGOR!!!! Fire up the random person generator. Attach it to www.fakenamegenerator.com and let's get this database full of crap. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Hurrh. Hurrh. Hurrh. Hurrrr.

  34. D Moss Esq

    "We are a positivity app" ...

    ... that's what the Doge said, way back when in Venice, as he launched the bocche dei leoni denunciation app, "we still welcome everyone to explore this [hole-in-the-wall] village of love and abundance for all".

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "We are a positivity app" ...

      "While these lions’ mouths were a pipeline to the State, they were not, despite popular lore, sinister snitching posts where your enemy could anonymously rat you out – fairly or unfairly – and wait for the Council of Ten’s reps to pop by and drag you off to swing from a gibbet. On the contrary, there was a sophisticated process through which anonymous denunciations were considered. Serious evidence and investigation were always needed before any action was taken. "

      In other words, if the Doge wasn't long dead you would have libelled him, because the Venetian system was simply much better run and more secure than any social media outlet, anywhere.

      1. D Moss Esq

        Re: "We are a positivity app" ...

        Reproved, that's me.

    2. Anonymous C0ward

      Such denunciation

      Wow.

  35. Stevie

    Bah!

    Oh, the terrible carnage of cost overruns and elastic IT deadlines have completely derailed this most excelent April 1st hoax.

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    YouGov ?

    just done a YouGov survey, asking if I'd ever use "Peeple".

  37. deemack

    Hmmm

    It'll sink without trace under the sheer weight of vitriol. Or maybe the cease & desist letters. Or the sueballs. When it does the bottom feeders of the Internet will move on to whatever the next septic thing is.

    Clever publicity stunt though.

  38. earl grey

    But i don't HAVE a mobe

    So how will someone be able to list my number one rating?

    And how will someone be able to tell me from the other 4,935,252 others with the same name?

    And how can i log in without a mobe to list for their data collection and scam service?

    And how long until the app disappears under a load of lawsuits? Even if they go bust, stuff never goes away from the interwebs. How will they enforce my ability to disappear?

  39. disgruntled yank

    Fair enough

    "“ 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.”

    Sure. Never date a [member of the appropriate sex] who uses Peeple belongs up there with Nelson Algren's three nevers. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Algren#References_in_popular_culture)

  40. Turtle

    “Why Don't You Like Me?”

    "The service promises to quarantine bad reviews for two days, giving the victim a chance to contact the reviewer and ask 'why don't you like me?'"

    I can answer that question right now! The answer is... "Because you didn't give me $50 to not write a vicious review about you. Now fork over the money or I'll give your number to all of my real friends and they'll slander you too."

  41. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh this will be fun

    This "database" will be ripe for hacking either by Anonymous, 4Chan or whomever fancies the challenge.

    The resultant shit storm and class action lawsuit (which the UK can now do thanks to new consumer laws) should be most entertaining.

  42. chivo243 Silver badge
    WTF?

    both of my ex-girlfriends in one pic?

    It's a conspiracy it say...

    1. chivo243 Silver badge
      WTF?

      Re: both of my ex-girlfriends in one pic?

      What? This is actually a real photo on El Reg? I thought it was a stock photo... I thought El Reg only used stock photo's?!! You know the new format that requires a useless photo with each story!

  43. url

    create profile

    unleash scron and profanity from eons upon the tard(esses)

    ...

    get banned

    don't profit

  44. Teiwaz

    Montag calling...

    They haven't mentioned how many front, back and side photos are needed to submit someone...

    1. x 7

      Re: Montag calling...

      hello Guy!

  45. x 7

    if my understanding of English law is correct, if the website is visible by users in the UK, then the website has been effectively published in the UK - making the publishers / authors of the site subject to UK legal action. even if they are not resident in the UK.

    It doesn't matter where the website is based, or the nationality of the company or people behind it: if its visible in UK, its actionable in the UK, Given the kind of awards UK libel actions attract, they really should think carefully before proceeding.

    They look like a pair of Essex blondes anyway - too thick to think over what they're doing

    1. Anonymous C0ward

      But presumably if they have no other ties to the UK they're quite at liberty to tell the UK courts to take a hike?

      1. x 7

        then they'd be tried in their absence - or the company would - and any damages would be enforced through an international warrant.

  46. Anonymous C0ward

    4chan is going to be all over this shit, and Anonymous famously does not forgive.

  47. WhoKnowsAtThisPoint

    Rating numero uno: The one on the right looks like she applies her make-up with a shotgun.

  48. Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

    features

    "The "features" (a word surely in need of its antonym by now)"

    It's tempting to suggest something nasty, like "fecatures", but let's settle for "misfeatures".

  49. moxberg

    Secret's in the sauce

    100+ comments, none of which seems to appreciate that the new service encourages balance and proportion. It is prudently named "Peeple", not "Shittle" or "Pukle". If that's not going to subliminally steer posters away from unsubstantiated commenting, then what is?

  50. a_yank_lurker

    WOT Rating

    The site already apparently has the lowest WOT rating possible

  51. Someone_Somewhere

    Is it just me?

    Or does that photo of McCullough and Cordray look like one of those optical illusions so beloved of psychologists, with the 'reveal' that "it's the same girl with a different hairstyle presented at a different angle and slightly different scale"?

  52. Nigel Whitfield.

    Great for lion killers, apparently.

    One of the fools behind this was interviewed on the World Service around 4am today, and I happened to catch it.

    She was trying to explain that it would help give a rounded view of people, and dug up the example of the lion-killing dentist, saying that if their app had been around, people would have a fairer view, because it would include comments from before his 'problems'.

    I think that if you have to try and justify your horrific web service by saying that it would help present a better view of a sadist who shoots wild animals for fun, you're on pretty dodgy ground.

  53. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
    Joke

    assigning a number value to a person

    I am not a number! I am a free man.

    Oh come, on, 111 comments and n o one said that yet? What a bunch of slacker commentards are these days. It's not like the old days. Git of ma' lawn!

  54. JLV
    Megaphone

    Yo, Apple

    Here's one app you'd get kudos for ToSing out of existence.

  55. Maelstorm Bronze badge

    Here in the US....

    The moment someone is denied a job based on this...app...there will be a line of lawyers waiting.

  56. Brian Allan 1

    Only in Canada...

    I'm quite sad to admit this App was developed in Canada and only 150 km from where I live. Definitely shows the decline of our society's values!

    And I always considered Canadians to be quite forgiving towards other people... Sadly wrong, I guess?

  57. Oom Bryce

    Deja Vu again

    Don't know if its been mentioned - there was a similar web site called "abouteveryone.com". You had to pay to get removed. It isn't around any more, so I think it got taken down.

    I got a mention, but I knew it was a fake, because all my enemies are now dead.

  58. x 7

    have these two blonde bimbos turned up on a revenge porn site yet?

    Surely its only a matter of time......

    we can talk about them then.......rate their bodies maybe. Can't rate their brains as they appear not to have any

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