These days before you try a new restaurant you might go online and look at reviews – perhaps visit a site like TripAdvisor. Before you buy a new car or go on a holiday, you are also likely to go online and look at reviews and ratings. How would you feel if I told you that one day there will be a website that ‘rates’ people? Before you go into business or even on a date with someone, you will be able to assess their rating as a human being. Do you think I’m crazy? Well, the Chinese government has already announced plans for a ‘Social Credit System’ for all of its 1.3 billion citizens.
On June 14, 2014, the State Council of China released a document called ‘Planning Outline for the Construction of a Social Credit System’. The Social Credit System (SCS) will rate the trustworthiness and sincerity of all Chinese citizens. The Chinese government is pitching the system as a desirable way to measure and improve ‘trust’ in China and to create a culture of ‘sincerity’. The document says, “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.” Are you ‘socially sincere’?
China is moving to rate its citizens
The British website Wired wrote an interesting article on the Chinese scheme. The communist government has given a licence to eight private companies to come up with systems and algorithms for social credit scores. Two huge data corporations are among the eight chosen companies.
One is China Rapid Finance, a partner of the social-network Tencent and developer of the messaging app WeChat with more than 850 million users. The other, Sesame Credit, is run by the Ant Financial Services Group (AFSG), which sells business insurance. Sesame Credit has also teamed up with other data-generating platforms, such as Didi Chuxing, the ride-hailing company that was once Uber’s main competitor in China, and Baihe, the country's largest online dating service. These companies already have huge amounts of data about Chinese citizens.
In the Alibaba project, five factors are taken into account. The first is credit history. Does the person pay their bills on time? Next is fulfilment capacity, which is a user's ability to fulfil his/her contract obligations. Three is personal details, verifying personal information such as mobile phone numbers and addresses.
People’s behaviour and relationships will be scrutinised
The fourth category is behaviour and preferences. Even a person’s shopping habits becomes a measure of their ‘character’. Alibaba says it judges people by the types of products they buy. “Someone who plays video games for ten hours a day, for example, would be considered an idle person,” Li Yingyun, Sesame's Technology Director told the Wired website. “Someone who frequently buys diapers would be considered as probably a parent, who on balance is more likely to have a sense of responsibility.”
The fifth category is interpersonal relationships. Who are your friends? Who do you talk to online? Sesame Credit counts “positive energy” online – sending nice messages about the government or how well the country's economy is doing; this makes your score go up.
Could a person-rating system ever come here?
China is not a democracy and is ruled by a communist regime. The social-credit system builds on the Chinese government’s history of monitoring and controlling people’s lives. China clearly does not respect basic human rights. If the US, Australia or Britain tried to introduce a ‘Social Credit System’ human rights lawyers and libertarians would be outraged. It would never be passed by the members of parliament, but think about how much data there is about you already in cyberspace.
Already companies have information about what you buy online and at shops. That’s why shops offer you those rewards cards instore. They store data about your purchases, so they know what products to market to you. Your mobile phone divulges where you are at any given time. Social media has data on who your friends are and perhaps also what you do with them. Your internet connection reveals many hours you spend watching content or playing video games; and what bills you pay or fail to pay. Think about how much information the data-collecting giants Google, Facebook and Instagram already have about you.
How do you feel about your personal data being sold?
How would you feel if they sold this data to a private company which gave you a public ‘person rating’? I find all this horrifying. China is already on track to becoming the world’s first digital totalitarian state.
I think personal interactions should be taken at face value. You should not be able to look up a public rating for a person. Even checking someone out on social media has its dangers. You must interact with people with an open-mind. Why? Because people frequently change! Sometimes people realise that they have made mistakes, been bad and decide to turn-over a new leaf. The central tenant of Christianity is repenting and forgiveness. I think that should be central to everyone’s outlook. Remember what the Bible says. Acts 3:19: “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out.” Isaiah 1: 18: “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”
We should not keep scores or ‘social credits’ of people’s faults. Again I will quote from the Bible, Matthew 6: 14-15, “Fore if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” What sort of society gives someone a long-term rating for trust and sincerity? Remember the prodigal son in the Bible, who blows his inheritance and then comes crawling back to his father. Does his dad keep score? No, he forgives him and welcomes him home.
If you believe in forgiveness, you can’t keep score
Sometimes people behave badly when they are going through tough times. Sometimes people are young, immature and foolish. It is outrageous to give someone an enduring bad-person rating. That, in its self, would stop the person repenting and becoming a better person. If you get a bad score from one person, will it snowball? Will other agencies or people then be inclined to give you a bad score? In a democracy we should all be allowed to say what we think about the government.
I think we need to be mindful about our privacy. Democratic governments need to have strong laws that ensure our online data is protected and not misused.
We must safeguard our freedoms
I suggest you take a look at an episode of the UK sci-fi series Black Mirror, called ‘Nosedive’. It is about an online ‘social credit’ system in the not-too-distant future, and plays on Netflix. Also, if you haven’t, please read George Orwell’s classic novel, Big Brother, about totalitarian governments.
After learning about China’s plans I have come to one conclusion – we need to protect our freedoms and never take them for granted.
ABOUT PAT MESITI
Pat Mesiti is a best-selling author, coach and educator in the area of personal development. Having built some of Australia’s largest people-driven organisations, Pat understands the power of harnessing human potential. He has shared the stage with some of the world’s great business minds and has sold over millions of copies of his books and materials.