“Hot Or Not” Website For Chinese University Students Leads To Ugly Consequences

A man in China has been detained by the police for stealing a university’s data to run a website for rating students based on their physical appearance.

A report by CNN identified the 25-year-old man by his surname Ma. Police stated that Ma stole student information from the database of his alma mater, Beijing’s prestigious Renmin University, and created a website for others to give ratings.

Renmin University in Beijing | CNN

Though the website has now been shut down, multiple screenshots from the site were posted on Renmin University’s student discussion forum. From there, it spread to Weibo, China’s popular social media network, over the weekend. The screenshots showed profiles of students with their pictures,r names, and student IDs listed, along with their dates and places of birth. Users could assign scores to these profiles, which were displayed along with the other information. The concept of the site was similar to Mark Zuckerberg’s FaceMash, where users would compare students from his alma mater, Harvard.

A screenshot showing the website interface | CNN

According to users, Ma stole the student’s information from the university database while he was studying there. The website has been allegedly active since 2020 and rated the appearance of both graduate and undergraduate students. According to a Renmin University staff, the stolen data spanned from 2014 to 2020.

The university told the media that they are in touch with the police and cooperating with the ongoing investigation.

The school strongly condemns behaviors that violate personal privacy and endanger information security.

—Renmin University in an offiicial statement

The district police also stated that they take the issue of protecting personal information very seriously and are working to crack down on such crimes severely.