China's Plan to Rate Its Citizens

[de officiis]

Big data meets Big Brother as China moves to rate its citizens

On June 14, 2014, the State Council of China published an ominous-sounding document called "Planning Outline for the Construction of a Social Credit System". In the way of Chinese policy documents, it was a lengthy and rather dry affair, but it contained a radical idea. What if there was a national trust score that rated the kind of citizen you were?

Imagine a world where many of your daily activities were constantly monitored and evaluated: what you buy at the shops and online; where you are at any given time; who your friends are and how you interact with them; how many hours you spend watching content or playing video games; and what bills and taxes you pay (or not). It's not hard to picture, because most of that already happens, thanks to all those data-collecting behemoths like Google, Facebook and Instagram or health-tracking apps such as Fitbit. But now imagine a system where all these behaviours are rated as either positive or negative and distilled into a single number, according to rules set by the government. That would create your Citizen Score and it would tell everyone whether or not you were trustworthy. Plus, your rating would be publicly ranked against that of the entire population and used to determine your eligibility for a mortgage or a job, where your children can go to school - or even just your chances of getting a date.

A futuristic vision of Big Brother out of control? No, it's already getting underway in China, where the government is developing the Social Credit System (SCS) to rate the trustworthiness of its 1.3 billion citizens. The Chinese government is pitching the system as a desirable way to measure and enhance "trust" nationwide and to build a culture of "sincerity". As the policy states, "It will forge a public opinion environment where keeping trust is glorious. It will strengthen sincerity in government affairs, commercial sincerity, social sincerity and the construction of judicial credibility."

Others are less sanguine about its wider purpose. "It is very ambitious in both depth and scope, including scrutinising individual behaviour and what books people are reading. It's Amazon's consumer tracking with an Orwellian political twist," is how Johan Lagerkvist, a Chinese internet specialist at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, described the social credit system. Rogier Creemers, a post-doctoral scholar specialising in Chinese law and governance at the Van Vollenhoven Institute at Leiden University, who published a comprehensive translation of the plan, compared it to "Yelp reviews with the nanny state watching over your shoulder".

For now, technically, participating in China's Citizen Scores is voluntary. But by 2020 it will be mandatory. The behaviour of every single citizen and legal person (which includes every company or other entity)in China will be rated and ranked, whether they like it or not.

How creepy can you get? Of course, it would never happen here . . .

[Okeefenokee]

We talked about this a while back. Maybe a couple years back.

They just now gettin' around to it?

[SuburbanFarmer]

I remember seeing this before, yeah. Still scary as fuck tho.

[SilverEagle]

I remember seeing this before, yeah. Still scary as fuck tho.

The NSA is doing that to us on some level already. Our government will do what China is doing but only in a more stealthy way. China prefers to build a viewable prison around their inmates....I mean citizens. Were as here in the good old USA the government loves to build invisible prisons to leave the illusion of freedom because of that centuries old document we have.

[C-Mag]

The more I see shit like this the more I take becoming a Luddite seriously, or hope for a global wide Carrington Event.

I'm sure many nations are on there way to doing this. Credit Scores were the first step. Here's what needs to be remembered these systems will be used politically. Take for instance how our government in the last 10 years has promoted some people and punished others. Spenser Rapone and Reality Winner were able to receive Security Clearances when they should not have and Conservative Organizations were punished by the IRS.

[heydaralon]

The NSA is doing that to us on some level already. Our government will do what China is doing but only in a more stealthy way. China prefers to build a viewable prison around their inmates....I mean citizens. Were as here in the good old USA the government loves to build invisible prisons to leave the illusion of freedom because of that centuries old document we have.

There is little reason for you to worry about this, as you do not possess the intelligence and internet sophistication to be a true threat to the government. The Chinese government would view you as a useful idiot, and a malleable tool. In a totalitarian system, you are the perfect citizen, a sheep that is incapable of understand the utter depth and genius of Rick and Morty. I would not thrive in China, because I am far too intelligent and well read (I finished the Lord of the Ring Series before 6th grade). They would immediately lock me up, as my mind is a dangerous weapon full of Japanese cultural know how. Nuke and I have been quite upset about your Rick and Morty signature, and we would politely ask that you remove it. Its not personal, but your crucial misunderstanding of that show makes real Rick and Morty fans look quite bad. We don't want to be associated with a mentally uncouth fellow such as yourself. With time, we may allow you to put the signature back, but only after you have demonstrated to us that you know and appreciate the superlative writing of Dan Harmon. Have a fine afternoon young man!

[SilverEagle]

I see heydaralon has posted something. Hey Fat Fuck, I blocked you so you might want to save yourself some time and go back to fingering yourself in the asshole.

[heydaralon]

I see heydaralon has posted something. Hey Fat Fuck, I blocked you so you might want to save yourself some time and go back to fingering yourself in the asshole.

[BjornP]

All they need next are forehead implants with glowing health and experience bars. And a sound effect for when they reach a new level.

[Speaker to Animals]

If the Chinese were anything like Americans, a high government social media ranking would be a sentence to beatings at the bus stop.