![]() The social credit initiative calls for the establishment of a record system so that businesses, individuals and government institutions can be tracked and evaluated for trustworthiness. In a system where every citizen's information is collected and traded at every level - in an apparent data free-for-all that involves government officials as well as so many private corporations - it's hard to tell who isn't allowed to know.The Social Credit System ( Chinese: 社会信用体系 pinyin: shèhuì xìnyòng tǐxì) is a national credit rating and blacklist being developed by the government of the People's Republic of China. Technically, privacy is protected by the constitution and the law in China, but when the Southern Metropolis Daily contacted the police with the results of its investigation, there was no comment. "It is in contrast to the data minimization philosophy – collect only what you need and keep it for only as long as you need to use it, then delete, delete, delete." "I would say it's a very big issue," says The Citizen Lab's Deibert. ![]() The approach is a far cry from what many Western governments still consider an appropriate balance between privacy and "national security," the vague catch-all phrase that China's Communist leaders use to justify crackdowns against anything that they consider politically threatening. That raises the question, would that massive database also be publicly available? Data free-for-allĮvery picture posted, every comment made, every driving infraction or incident of rowdiness would go into a central database that would spit out a single number that would determine how far you could be trusted to hold a job or travel or even get married. Modeled on the score banking institutions give for your financial reliability, this one would measure your social "trustworthiness" using data collected from every online interaction. In fact, Beijing recently unveiled an ambitious plan to assign every citizen a so-called "social credit" score. In all cases, it seems the data is routinely collected, sorted and cross-referenced - and almost certainly tracked by government officials. ![]() But some is likely only available from government sources, information on driving infractions and border crossings. Much of the data seems to come from companies like telecom providers and hotels. But the reporters at the Southern Metropolis Daily had no trouble getting solid, confirmed information. There are countless ads for services like these online, and some seem more reliable than others. (Saša Petricic/CBC)Īnother service provided live tracking of a colleague using his mobile phone, sending pinpoint locations in real time. In a system where every citizen's information is collected and traded at every level, involving government officials and private corporations, it's hard to tell who isn't allowed to know. ![]() "What the government has managed to do, I think quite successfully, is download the controls to the private sector, to make it incumbent upon them to police their own networks," he says. Among other things, the restrictions follow Chinese students who study abroad.Ĭhinese authorities "have a wealth of data at their disposal about what individuals are doing at a micro level in ways that they never had before," Deibert says. ![]() It's used by more than 800 million people here every month - virtually every Chinese person who is online.ĭeibert's team found it contains various hidden means of censorship and surveillance. The lab has taken apart popular apps like WeChat, a messaging app that also does financial transactions designed specifically for the Chinese market by private software giant Tencent. Ronald Deibert, of The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, says Chinese authorities 'have a wealth of data at their disposal about what individuals are doing at a micro level in ways that they never had before.' (Saša Petricic/CBC) ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |