Title: ACLU: Orwellian Citizen Score, China's credit score system, is a warning for Americans | Computerworld
Headings: ACLU: Orwellian Citizen Score, China's credit score system, is a warning for Americans
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ACLU: Orwellian Citizen Score, China's credit score system, is a warning for Americans
In China, every citizen is being assigned a credit score that drops if a person buys and plays video games, or posts political comments online “without prior permission," or even if social media "friends" do so. The ACLU said the credit rating system, an Orwellian nightmare, should serve as a warning to Americans.
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Content: Big data is sucking in everything about citizens as algorithms evaluate that data, but the Chinese government is leveraging that data and “ smart data ” analysis that “reveals even casual relationships” in order to create a comprehensive credit score system which “ determines your opportunities for life .” Yes the score does measure the ability to pay, but “this is the most staggering, publicly announced, scaled use of big data I've ever seen,” said Silicon Valley entrepreneur Michael Fertik; he is also the author of The Reputation Economy. “ It certainly feels about as Orwellian as your nightmares would have it be.” The new “ social credit system ” is linked to 1.3 billion Chinese citizens’ national ID cards, scoring them on their behavior and the “activities of friends in your social graph—the people you identify as friends on social media.” Citizens’ credit scores, or “Citizen Scores,” are affected by their own political opinions and the political opinions of their friends as well. The system leverages “all the tools of the information age—electronic purchasing data, social networks, algorithmic sorting—to construct the ultimate tool of social control,” according to Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst for the ACLU Speech, Privacy & Technology Project. The new Chinese credit score will be mandatory by 2020, but citizens can currently track their score via a free “ Sesame Credit ” app. China Internet Watch
A citizen’s status, or credit score that ranges from 350 to 950, is available for everyone to view via Credit China. Citizens with higher scores are rewarded;