China will use big data to give every citizen a "social credit" numerical rating

[Liberal_in_LA]

China To Use Big Data To Rate Citizens In New 'Social Credit System'

How good a citizen are you? China hopes to answer that question for every one of its citizens with a numerical rating system based on their financial standing, criminal record and social media behavior. A new translation of the government’s plans for a so-called social credit system sheds light on how China aims to utilize "Big Data" to hold all citizens accountable for financial decisions as well as moral choices.

China’s plans to roll out a citizen rating system has been in the works for years. Rogier Creemers, a China expert at Oxford University, recently published a translation of a document circulated through various levels of government detailing the six-year rollout of the program. According to a State Council notice, the central government hopes to have every adult in China assigned a credit code in addition to a government-issued identity card by 2020.

“Accelerating the construction of a social credit system is an important basis for comprehensively implementing the scientific development view and building a harmonious Socialist society,” the memo reads, adding that it has “important significance for strengthening the sincerity consciousness of the members of society.” The "guiding ideology," the name of a subsection in the memo, states that a key principle of the system is "government promotion."

While using financial, Internet and other data to evaluate individuals is not a new phenomenon, China will likely be the first nation to do it publicly and have the systematization and rationalization for doing so down to a numerical index. In an interview with Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant, Creemers draws similarities to the former East German system but says the Chinese are taking it even further.

http://www.ibtimes.com/china-use-big-data-rate-citizens-new-social-credit-system-1898711

[djean111]

1. Don't we already do this, with credit ratings? And searchable criminal records and background

checks? We have already accepted this sort of thing, methinks.

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. THere is no one number assigned to US citizens that is based on financial, criminal and social media

behavior

[winter is coming]

4. ... that we've been told about. n/t

[elehhhhna]

5. exactly. no wrist tattoos for the "undesirables"...too old school.

[joshcryer]

8. Corporations do.

And many companies do searches based on datamined information. It is unfortunate that it is legal for corporations to datamine so much and people don't seem to have a problem with it.

[DanTex]

3. Wow. This is creepy as hell.

[IDemo]

6. Yes,

and it's therefore very likely that a similar system will pop up in the US sooner than later.

[Jesus Malverde]

7. Its likely the NSA also has a profile score for Net users...nt

[djean111]

9. Oh, yes - we can be rated in much the same way, by the police, right here in the US. As usual,

it has been monetized, - the software company makes a profit, and our militarized police make use of it.

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/12/12/police-data-mining-looks-through-social-media-assigns-you-a-threat-level/

One such application is Beware, sold to police departments since 2012 by a private company, Intrado. This mobile application crawls over billions of records in commercial and public databases for law enforcement needs. The application “mines criminal records, Internet chatter and other data to churn out … profiles in real time,” according to one article in an Illinois newspaper.

Here’s how the company describes it on their website:

"Accessed through any browser (fixed or mobile) on any Internet-enabled device including tablets, smartphones, laptop and desktop computers, Beware® from Intrado searches, sorts and scores billions of commercial records in a matter of seconds-alerting responders to potentially deadly and dangerous situations while en route to, or at the location of a call."

Crunching all the database information in a matter of seconds, the Beware algorithm then assigns a score and “threat rating” to a person — green, yellow or red. It sends that rating to a requesting officer.

For example, working off a home address, Beware can send an officer basic information about who lives there, their cell phone numbers, whether they have past convictions and the cars registered to the address. Police have had access to this information before, but Beware makes it available immediately.
Yet it does far more — scanning the residents’ online comments, social media and recent purchases for warning signs. Commercial, criminal and social media information, including, as Intrado vice president Steve Reed said in an interview with urgentcomm.com, “any comments that could be construed as offensive,” all contribute to the threat score.

..........

http://www.intrado.com/beware

Anyone who thinks that the NSA doesn't have access to or use software like this already is, IMO, awfully naive. And this does not have to be in real time - all of the info they will ever need is already stored somewhere, ready to be searched. The "warrant" thing is, again IMO, a joke. Also, the police, or whoever is using the software, determine what to use to score people, and what constitutes a threat.

Funny, I have heard it said that the US is too big and the people too armed or aware or whatever, that we would never accept living under the same draconian conditions as other countries. Bwah! We have meekly accepted the corporate and legislated austerity - cuts to the safety net, jobs outsourced, etc. We have seen our police be enthusiastically militarized. The killings of black people keeps increasing - while we watch and bemoan, but now it is in your face, with impunity, even though we are keeping score.

Apply for a job? Credit check, background check, drug test. ANY type of job. And try correcting errors in your credit score. Now this software, and likely there are other packages like this - scans your internet presence and your recent purchases, in order to assign you a score and a "threat color".

This sort of thing is here in the US already, just not done with a press conference or a newsworthy announcement - it has crept in on little profit-driven cat's feet. And we really don't or can't do anything about it. The corporations, the NSA, and agreements like the TPP and TTIP - they are our "Chinese government" - and, icing on the cake - "but CHINA!!!" is used a the boogeyman. Well done, sirs!

[Democat]

10. This is a thread about the Chinese government

Your post has nothing to do with the Chinese government.

DU members never miss an opportunity to bash the US government, no matter what the topic.

[djean111]

11. This thread is about how - gasp! the Chinese government is doing this bad, invasive thing! as if

we do not do it here already. You think that pointing out that our government already does this stuff is bashing? You think it is okay if WE do it? Or, perhaps, we are not supposed to be aware that this is already happening here?