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This question has to do with the legality of "Peeple", which was described as "Yelp for People". The basic idea is that someone makes a profile for a person, listing their name, age, city, or something along those lines and gives them a rating of 1 to 4 stars.

In this situation, what is a violation of private information here? Is posting any of it without consent a violation?

Is posting a bad rating slander/libel, or does it violate any other such laws?

Can the following information or some combination thereof be considered private information? Or is it not private because the user can't be sure it's the person they find on the site is the person they are looking for?

a). Full name (does middle initial matter legally?).
b). Full DOB
c). City of birth
d). Current city of residence
e). Age (without exact DOB)
f). Place of former/current education/employment (a la LinkedIn, but I guess that's voluntary provided and doesn't count)

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I am unclear as to whether you mean peepl or peeple; the first is what you wrote but the second is what you described. Both allow reviews to be left but the former is a B2C commerce site and the second is a social network.

Whichever you mean, the method of operation you describe is not right for either; reviews can only be left on users that have already registered - a third party cannot create a user and then leave a review.

As such, much of the privacy issues are moot; if you choose to disclose private information about yourself then go for it. In both cases the companies you disclose it to are obliged to handle it in accordance with relevant laws - probably the law where they are located as this is something the user agrees to in the T&C. Peepl's privacy policy is here and indicates that it is subject to UK law. I couldn't find similar information for Peeple but it may be in the app itself.

To defame (which includes both libel and slander) someone you have to: Make an untrue statement that could damage the person's reputation to a third party. So, yes you can defame someone on any social media platform and would be held liable for it. Generally, the media company is not liable provided that they have a mechanism that allows the defamed person to have the defamatory reviews removed promptly and that they actually do this.

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  • I meant Peeple. Anyway, it looks to me like anyone can create a profile based on "You can’t opt out — once someone puts your name in the Peeple system" from this link: washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/09/30/… Edit: Subsequent articles changed the rules to "opt-in", but theoretically, could this have been legal the way they initially intended it? – johnnypriduman Jan 6 '16 at 23:21
  • The question you asked has been answered, please feel free to ask another question based on the hypothetical – Dale M Jan 7 '16 at 3:48
  • FWIW, you should be aware that by linking to these sites in your answer, you are probably helping to improve their search engine ranking. – alexw Jan 18 '17 at 1:36

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