New Social Media Shaming App Compared To "Yelp" For People
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It's called public shaming. Someone could be trashing your reputation on line right now without you knowing it.
It's often something as innocent as dog shaming, capturing dogs acting badly.
Public shaming sites can quickly turn ugly, especially when it comes to blasting people for their perceived offensive behaviors.
There's no shortage of sites like passenger shaming for commuters.
To "She's a homewrecker" ... from boyfriend shaming blogs to neighbor shaming, it's scary to think your image may be out there- linked to one of these sites and you don't even know it.
"If you look up the homewrecker site, there are forums and forums of people complaining, 'I'm on here, I'm not a homewrecker, my photo is up here, there are all these terrible comments about me,'" Cybersecurity attorney Leeza Garber told Eyewitness News.
"It's a fine line between what's privacy and what isn't," Garber said.
Garber says it's difficult to have your images removed once they've been plastered on these sites.
"Even with legal actions, the internet is so hard to delete information from. It sticks around," Garber said.
The app creating the most buzz now is called "peeple" and it's being compared to "yelp" for human beings.
"A lot of people are up in arms about this wondering how can I opt out of such a thing? When you post something online, it's very hard to get it taken down and it kind of follows you. It's very important to be weary of these sites and applications," Garber said.
So while there are legal avenue's you can take involving copyright actions, invasion of privacy and defamation, cybersecurity experts say it can be costly and hard to prove.
"While all these sound great, some of the claims are applicable to some of these issues. It's very difficult to file these kinds of lawsuits. There are expensive, sometimes you don't know what party to go after," Garber explained.
Cybersecurity experts say some states are looking to criminalize the actions of those who post malicious and illegal content on these sites.
