Like Facebook, But More Exploitative

It is a truth universally acknowledged that one’s Facebook.com profile is closely correlated to one’s success in the sack. Attractive Facebook.com photos often lead to sexual victories; landscape profile pics usually suggest an unattractive lone ranger. Now, thanks to PeopleRadar, the game has become official.

PeopleRadar, Facebook.com’s recent addition to its development platform, allows users to rank profile photos on a scale of 1 to 10. “I’d been thinking about doing a ‘Hot or Not’ site for students,” says PeopleRadar founder, Richard W.T. Price. “But the tricky thing is getting photos for that.” Price found a solution to this problem by borrowing his subjects from Facebook.com’s existing pool of hotties without having to even ask permission. The Facebook.com’s Terms of Use policy, that no one ever reads, allows it to distribute user information to foster foundling programs, like PeopleRadar. A Facebook.com member must alter their personal privacy settings in order to be excluded from these projects. If a Facebook.com user visits the PeopleRadar site, he and his Facebook.com friends are immediately uploaded onto the database.

Still, Price insists that his site provides a legitimate service to students. “People like looking at pictures of people, especially if they’re hot,” he says.

Harvard’s hottest, however, don’t necessarily agree. “I don’t care about them,” says Katerina B. Stavreva ’10 of her own high ratings. Fellow “Top Ten” resident Winter Mead ’08 also felt the ratings were arbitrary. “Judgment based on beauty in this context is too sensitive, too close to home,” he said in an e-mail.

Curious about your rating? Find out at www.PeopleRadar.com. Prefer to keep your self-esteem? Change your privacy settings.