China's Social Credit System

The Chinese government has begun rolling out a set of reputation-tracking technologies called the Social Credit System. It uses high-tech surveillance, facial recognition and data mining to track the minute daily activities of citizens and business in order to score them on their behavior. Those who maintain high scores will receive privileges like travel upgrades, preferential access to schooling and jobs, and higher social status, while those with low scores will have reduced access or could even be blacklisted.

This might sound Utopian, but the system is already being used to punish debtors, and critics of the government. Is this system really designed to encourage good behavior, or is it a system of control to encourage conformity, suppress the downtrodden and punish dissenters?

What are the pros and cons of such reputation-tracking systems? How can we encourage better behavior and citizenship without giving our government the power to over-reach?

Excerpt

The Chinese government has begun rolling out a set of reputation-tracking technologies called the Social Credit System. It uses high-tech surveillance, facial recognition and data mining to track the minute daily activities of citizens and business in order to score them on their behavior. Those who maintain high scores will receive privileges like travel upgrades, preferential access to schooling and jobs, and higher social status, while those with low scores will have reduced access or could even be blacklisted. What are the pros and cons of such reputation-tracking systems?

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Artificial Intelligence [3] China [1] Futurism [7] Politics [26] Privacy [2] Technology [6]