China wants to grade its 1.3 billion
people based on how good or bad of a
citizen they've been critics of China's
plan have pointed to the black mirror
episode where everyone gets raided in
their daily interactions
you want to cookie with that on the
house sounds awesome in China's version
your acquaintances wouldn't grade you
that would be done by the state
a dozen cities are already testing
different systems with the government
aiming to create a nationwide network by
2020 this is your bloomberg quick take
on what china is calling its Social
Credit System the plan was first
outlined in this 2014 government
document where the guiding ideology of
the Social Credit system is described as
keeping trust is glorious and breaking
trust is disgraceful trust among the
public has taken a hit as the country is
separate from rampant corruption
financial scams and corporate scandals
over the past several decades so they're
solving this new system as an attempt to
raise standards and uphold basic laws
and restore that public trust
local trials are covering about 6% of
the population already a network that
collates central and local government
information has been used to blacklist
millions of people from doing things
like booking flights and taking
high-speed train trips how citizens are
judged in the trials varies from place
to place for example in Hangzhou
donating blood or volunteering work his
scene is pro-social while violating
traffic laws counts against someone
standing in jaj on cellphone usage while
driving or walking dogs without leashes
hurts your credit rating and yee-whoo
your score can be boosted by helping the
elderly or protecting public property
will be quote unable to move even a
single step you could be denied basic
services or stopped from borrowing money
or it could end up restricting your
employment opportunities in some cases
you might not be able to stay in a
fancier hotel or buy a house or a luxury
car or send your kids to a private
school that you want to even foreigners
are subject to scrutiny and yee-whoo a
bad credit score can result in visas and
residence permits being denied or
revoked it's still unclear how exactly
the program
work nationally but unsurprisingly
technology is helping to make it all
possible Big Data advances have made the
task of collating vast databases of
information on civilians much easier and
regional officials are now studying how
they could apply facial recognition
technology to identify people who are
jaywalkers or even cyclists who run red
lights there are doubts however the
China will be able to combine diverse
local networks into a universal system
so far the reaction to the trials has
been mixed criticism of the system
within China has been pretty varied so
far a lot of urban educated elite
support the system they see it as a
means to promote honesty in societies
rather than as a privacy violation
criticism has been harsher overseas
rights groups see the social credit
system as a sinister move to expand the
state's already tightening control over
China's people and even what they think
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