This “creepy” site is uploading your pics for people to drool over

A ‘hot or not’ site branded “creepy” and “stalkerish” has been quietly uploading photos of students for everyone on the internet to drool over.

Ratemash.com claims to be a better version of Tinder but 150,000 students’ Facebook profile pictures are catalogued on the site without their consent.

The site’s founders say profiles are added by friends

Ratemash ranks the hottest students on a leaderboard

Users flick through photos of guys or girls, rating them hot or not. The top 50 at each university are then ranked on a leaderboard, with a link provided to their Facebook profiles.

But Ratemash doesn’t tell users they’re on the site, meaning someone could be looking at your profile right now.

Angry students branded the site “degrading” and “creepy”. Durham student Natasha Henley said: “I had no clue I was on it and didn’t know it existed until today, so no I never signed up.

“It’s quite creepy to think I’m on there, especially since it redirects you to people’s profiles and anyone can get onto the site which has quite a stalkerish vibe to be honest.”

Michael Healy (left) founded the site with £30,000 investment

The Ratemash team, including Michael Healy (top left)

Michael Rubin, Leicester Students’ Union Education Officer, who was ranked 2nd on the mens list, now 24th, told The Tab: “I had no idea that I was even on the site until you got in touch with me. It’s all just a bit weird and creepy to think that people have been able to access my Facebook site through RateMash without me knowing.”

“I definitely didn’t put myself on the site and it’s not something I choose to do in my spare time. Judging people based on their appearance isn’t something that should be taking place anywhere, even on the internet.”

The site’s owner, 19-year-old Michael Healy, claims users add their friends when they sign up. He told The Tab: “People get invited by their friends but they are welcome to remove themselves at any time.”

“I made it for a university [Regent’s University] that my roommates were going to and it got like 50,000 ratings overnight so I thought I’d scale it to other university. It’s just a bit of fun.

“I see it as Tinder for universities – it’s a lot more interesting because of the leaderboard.”

The site claims to help people meet each other

Healy said he had received “fewer than 100” complaints, but when asked if he thought his site was creepy or an invasion of privacy, he refused to comment.

And he admitted users who wanted their photos removed would have to sign up for the site – connecting it with their Facebook profile – and then delete their photo, before emailing him to remove their account.

Ratemash was founded with £30,000 investment, employing six people. A description on the site says: “Ratemash is buzzing community with members within universities mostly in the UK and around the world who like to go out, party and enjoy themselves. The idea of Ratemash is to make it easier to meet new people in universities and to make going out cheaper, more fun and seamless.”

The site even invites users to rate cats and babies

But there is a fear that Ratemash could assist online stalking more than meeting. The Tab spoke with thirty students who found they were listed on the site, and none of them were aware they were on it.

And the site doesn’t appear to be user friendly – everyone on the leaderboard has the same score of 22 points, and the site even invites users to rate cats and babies, because they are people’s profile pictures.