Let’s talk about China, its Social Credit System + more

dedicatedguy (74)in #technology • 6 years ago (edited)

Introduction

Imagine establishing a ranking system in which each person receives points and the number of said points we have have gained is capable of affecting our real lives... Well, China has been developing exactly that.

In a society like ours, where we people to be concerned about the opinions that others have about them, this idea may seem exaggerated and more typical of science fiction than reality. In fact, it is a concept that has been already explored in series such as Black Mirror in the episode called Nosedive, in literature with Orwell's 1984 or in dystopian video games. However, it is something that has been proposed to be carried out in reality with the goals of implement it in a real society.

Human rights groups are concerned that as the system is fully implemented around 2020, it may widen its use of apps and citizens’ social media behaviour to rate them, including using information about political allegiances. | Source

“Big Brother” and invasive surveillance coming to China

The concept of Big Brother was born in the 1984 novel by Orwell, an author who presented a future in which citizens were monitored continuously, being watched and controlled in such a way that everything they did and everything they said was observed and valued. With time, this idea became very popular, and now it is used to refer to situations in which there is extreme control and manipulation of the population's behavior. And it is something that could happen in China when the Social Credit System is fully implemented.

For some years, China has been developing the implementation of a system that allows, through the extensive network of cameras covering the country, to assess the performance of citizens based on a criteria and algorithms that as of yet, have not been made public.

The process in question is not something that has already been established definitively, but it is open to changes depending on the appearance of different variables and errors that would have to be modified. In this sense, the government has provided permits to several private companies to generate a system based on algorithms dedicated to the control and scoring of the actions of the population, being the system Zhima from Alibaba one of the most active and popular in the creation of an algorithm based on various criteria.

Among these criteria we could find the financial history, the ability to satisfy contractual obligations (efficiency at work), personal characteristics and behavior and general preferences. This means that the economic situation, the productivity of each citizen, what they buy and what they do not buy, their habits and tastes, everything, would be evaluated continuously and they would be rewarded or punished for it.

Zhima Credit is an optional service embedded in Alipay that calculates users’ personal credit based on data such as spending history, friends on Alipay’s social network, and other types of consumer behavior. | Source

Zhima Credit is the embodiment of personal credit … It uses big data to conduct an objective assessment. The higher the score, the better your credit. | Source

Participation in this program is for the moment, voluntary. However, it is proposed that starting in 2020 it would be mandatory for every person and legal entity in China. Thus, the whole country will have a social valuation as a citizen, where actions will earn points as a way of controlling the behavior of everyone.

Of course, this initiative doesn’t sound like something designed to respect individual freedom, since this technology supposes a close to total control over every individual who besides, will also be subjected to some unknown criteria. After all, being a good citizen depends on the criteria of each individual, it is subjective.

Surveillance by facial recognition

In order to work properly, this system requires an intricate net of cameras that cover all the cities, as well as software that allows facial recognition. And the truth is that both of these elements are already established in China, there is for example the possibility of buying or withdrawing money from banks based on the analysis of their facial features, thanks to systems such as Face++.

The biggest danger is that this technology will be used for general, suspicionless surveillance systems. State motor vehicles agencies possess high-quality photographs of most citizens that are a natural source for face recognition programs and could easily be combined with public surveillance or other cameras in the construction of a comprehensive system of identification and tracking. | Source

It is also used in a punitive way because in some cities there are large electronic signs showing the faces of citizens who have been recorded committing some imprudence when it comes to the traffic, whether pedestrians or drivers, this is simply to cause them some public embarrassment and it is necessary to pay in order to remove the picture.

These are useful systems that could be responsibly applied in different ways, and their application has already allowed the detention of multiple people who committed crimes, as well as facilitate their location to know what they have done and when. It also makes buying products something much simpler because people don’t need items such as credit cards to pay and therefore, it reduces the probability of theft (although there will always be the risk of someone hacking the system).

Likewise, the idea of controlling information about some aspects of people’s lives is not new nor exclusive to China. For example, in America there are reports about credit and financial reliability that can have considerable repercussions when it comes to obtaining credits or loans from the banks.

What is without doubt pioneering and certainly controversial about this initiative is the fact of applying this to a whole population, and the idea of checking if a person is a good citizen or not, which will be an assessment done in a subjective way as mentioned before. In addition, such control would be exercised continuously throughout the life of the individual, in all areas where it could be recorded. In a way, there would be no escape.

People’s score will have consequences one way or another

The score and assessment that citizens may have will not be merely anecdotal, it will have its consequences.

People with low social value could see how their access to the Internet has lower speed, and access to different, services and products (going the cinema, visiting certain restaurants, even enrolling their children in private schools) or specific rights (taking a passport, accessing some jobs or accessing the right to use some transport means), will also be limited if there are actions that are considered inappropriate.

On the other hand, those who have a higher score could have multiple benefits in addition to being socially better valued, they may for example have priority to obtain visas, and they will be exempt from having to leave a hotel deposit or a deposit to rent an apartment.

It is a system that can work as a method so that those worthy of trust and appreciation can act freely while those who do not deserve such trust and incur in different crimes have difficulties to act as they please. This concept can be dangerous, in any country there is, because concrete ideologies could easily be repressed and punished, and even scientific advances contrary to the opinion or interests of those in power could be suppressed.

Negative and positive psychological impact

In addition to the above, this system can have other types of risks like deeply altering people’s behavior, even where there is no surveillance.

The positive result is that it increases the security reducing all sort of crimes, and could also lead to a reduction imprudent actions while driving and avoiding traffic accidents, in this way people will simply be much more careful in everything they do in public.

The negative impacts are clear, there is a loss of freedom and privacy, leaving people’s behavior completely exposed and being constantly judged by other people whose ideas might be very different.

Non criminal behaviors could also be judged, such as social and personal habits and divergences with the norm could be harmed. Likewise, spontaneity would be lost and every interaction would become much more controlled, due to fear of possible consequences. This puts the citizen under high pressure in all areas of their lives, generating stress and anxiety that can diminish their abilities and even damage their health, it would be no surprise if some people end up collapsing due to this new type of pressure added by this system.

Inhibition, in psychology, conscious or unconscious constraint or curtailment of a process or behaviour, especially of impulses or desires. Inhibition serves necessary social functions, abating or preventing certain impulses from being acted on. | Source

Another element to take into account is the possible desperate search for social approval, although in principle the own score is not shared with the rest of the citizens, the fact of being valued in better or worse way will make some people look approval impulsively and fiercely.

Here is a little scene of the Black Mirror episode mentioned before, where we can see a woman practicing her laugh just so that other people start to like her more:

Finally, we can find another risk which is the sale of our data to third companies so that they benefit and try to sell us their products. Although it is something that is already carried out normally when entering different websites and social networks.

Conclusion

Technology can be a blessing to free us, but it can also be used as a tool to enslave us. What China is doing will undoubtedly have serious repercussions in their population. This is a dangerous experiment and could serve as a precedent to other countries if they decide to try something similar in the future.

There is a famous quote by Benjamin Franklin that says: