Justifying controls in the name of national security and social stability, China originally planned to develop what it called a "Golden Shield" surveillance system allowing easy access to local, national, and regional records on each citizen.
The new social credit system under development will consolidate reams of records from private companies and government bureaucracies into a single "Citizen score" for each Chinese citizen.
Already, 100,000 Chinese citizens have posted on social media about high scores on a "Sesame Credit" app operated by Alibaba, in a private-sector precursor to the proposed government system.
The planned "Citizen credit" score will likely weigh far more data than the Western FICO score, which helps lenders make fast and reliable decisions on whether to extend financial credit.
While the latter simply tracks whether you've paid back your debts and managed your money well, experts on China and internet privacy have speculated-based on the vast amounts of online shopping data mined by the government without regard for consumer privacy-that your Chinese credit score could be higher if you buy items the regime likes-like diapers-and lower if you buy ones it doesn't, like video games or alcohol.
Even more worrying is that the government will be technically capable of considering the behavior of a Chinese citizen's friends and family in determining his or her score.
A state-run, party-inspired, data-driven monitoring system poses profound questions for the West about the role of private companies in government surveillance.
Is it ethical for private companies to assist in massive surveillance and turn over their data to the government? Alibaba and Tencent possess sweeping data on each Chinese citizen that the government would have to mine to calculate scores.
While private companies like credit scoring bureaus have always used data to measure consumers' creditworthiness, in any decent society there must be a clear distinction between private-sector and public-sector scoring mechanisms that could determine access to citizen rights and privileges, without recourse.
The government already constantly monitors the cell phones and social media of human-rights activists in the name of "Stability maintenance." A video surveillance system would enable further pervasive and repressive surveillance.
China's experiments with digital surveillance pose a grave new threat to freedom of expression on the internet and other human rights in China.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/02/china-surveillance/552203/
The new social credit system under development will consolidate reams of records from private companies and government bureaucracies into a single "Citizen score" for each Chinese citizen.
Already, 100,000 Chinese citizens have posted on social media about high scores on a "Sesame Credit" app operated by Alibaba, in a private-sector precursor to the proposed government system.
The planned "Citizen credit" score will likely weigh far more data than the Western FICO score, which helps lenders make fast and reliable decisions on whether to extend financial credit.
While the latter simply tracks whether you've paid back your debts and managed your money well, experts on China and internet privacy have speculated-based on the vast amounts of online shopping data mined by the government without regard for consumer privacy-that your Chinese credit score could be higher if you buy items the regime likes-like diapers-and lower if you buy ones it doesn't, like video games or alcohol.
Even more worrying is that the government will be technically capable of considering the behavior of a Chinese citizen's friends and family in determining his or her score.
A state-run, party-inspired, data-driven monitoring system poses profound questions for the West about the role of private companies in government surveillance.
Is it ethical for private companies to assist in massive surveillance and turn over their data to the government? Alibaba and Tencent possess sweeping data on each Chinese citizen that the government would have to mine to calculate scores.
While private companies like credit scoring bureaus have always used data to measure consumers' creditworthiness, in any decent society there must be a clear distinction between private-sector and public-sector scoring mechanisms that could determine access to citizen rights and privileges, without recourse.
The government already constantly monitors the cell phones and social media of human-rights activists in the name of "Stability maintenance." A video surveillance system would enable further pervasive and repressive surveillance.
China's experiments with digital surveillance pose a grave new threat to freedom of expression on the internet and other human rights in China.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/02/china-surveillance/552203/
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