In China it will be possible to rate people: the good citizen’s card

The State will have a lot of power over the citizen, making it possible to punish non-illegal actions.

Establish a rating system in which each person is scored and the amount of points we have and the number of points we have will affect our life. Even in a society like ours, where we are often concerned about the opinions others have about us, this idea may seem far-fetched and more like science fiction than reality. In fact, it is a concept that we can see in series such as Black Mirror (in its episode "Plummeting"), in literature (Orwell's 1984) or in video games. However, it is something that has been considered to be carried out in reality.

In fact, with a view to 2020 it is planned to happen in China, with the Zhima Credit System and the good citizen card..

Big Brother arrives in China

The concept of Big Brother was born in Orwell's novel 1984, author who presented a future in which citizens were continuously monitored, being watched and controlled in such a way that everything they do and say is observed and valued. This idea has spread among the population to the point of being used to refer to those situations in which there is extreme control and manipulation of the population's behavior. And this is something that could happen in China with the implementation of the system that concerns us in this article.

For some years now, China has been proposing and approving the implementation of a system that would make it possible to monitor and control the behavior of the population, through the extensive network of cameras that cover the country, to assess the performance of citizens based on criteria and algorithms for based on criteria and algorithms that are, for the moment, secret.

The process in question is not something that has already been definitively established, but is open to change as different variables appear and as successes and errors are seen that need to be modified. In this sense, the government has provided permits to eight private companies to generate a system based on algorithms dedicated to the control and scoring of stocks. The Zhima or Sesame Credit system of Alibaba is one of the most active and popular (along with the company China Rapid Finance) in the generation of an algorithm based on various criteria.

Among such criteria we could find financial history (do you pay bills? do you ask for credit?), ability to meet contractual obligations (efficiency and effectiveness at work), personal characteristics, and behavior and preferences. This means that each citizen's economic capacity, labor productivity, what they buy and what they don't buy, their habits and tastes would be continuously evaluated, and they would be rewarded and punished for it. would be rewarded and punished for it..

Participation in this program is, for the moment, voluntary. However, it is planned that from 2020 it will be mandatory for every person and legal entity in China. Thus, the whole country will have a social valuation as a citizen, being punctuated and controlled their actions.

Of course, this initiative is subject to numerous criticisms and controversies, as it it implies an almost total control of the citizenry by the authorities, and being subject to criteria and being subject to criteria unknown to the majority. After all, what does it mean to be a good citizen? The answer to this question is subject to great subjectivity.

Facial recognition surveillance

To work, this system requires an intricate system of cameras covering the cities, as well as software that allows facial recognition. software that enables facial recognition. And the truth is that both elements are already in place in China: there is, for example, the possibility of buying or withdrawing money from banks based on the analysis of your features, without the need for cards, with systems such as Face++.

It is also used in a punitive manner: in some cities we can see how there are large electronic billboards showing the faces of citizens who the faces of citizens who have been recorded committing some kind of recklessness in terms of car traffic. in the traffic area, whether they are pedestrians or drivers, as a form of public scorn (you have to pay to have their image removed).

These are useful systems in different ways, whose application has allowed the arrest of multiple criminals and suspects. It makes it easier to locate them and to know what they have done and when. It also makes it simpler to do something like shopping, not requiring elements such as cards to pay and reducing the probability of theft (although there is also the risk of hacking the system).

Likewise, the idea of controlling information about some aspects of citizens' lives is neither new nor exclusive to China. For example, in the U.S. there are reports on credit and financial efficiency and reliability that can have repercussions when it comes to obtaining credit or assessing credit terms and conditions..

What is pioneering and controversial about this initiative is the fact of applying it to the population as a whole in a generalized manner, and the idea of evaluating how good or bad a citizen one is, with this evaluation having much more subjective overtones. Moreover, such control would be exercised continuously throughout the subject's life, in all areas in which it could be recorded.

Our score has day-to-day consequences

The score and evaluation that citizens may have will not be merely anecdotal, but will have consequences.

As it stands, people with low social people with a low social rating could see their access to the Internet as lower and at low speed, and the access to the Internet as a whole could be and low speed, and access to different leisure systems, services and products (going to the cinema or to certain restaurants for example, or enrolling their children in private schools) or specific rights (getting a passport, accessing certain jobs or accessing the right to use certain methods of transport), will also be limited if they engage in behavior considered inappropriate. For example, someone with a very low rating would not be able to enter fields related to law, civil law or journalism.

On the other hand, those with a higher score could have multiple benefits in addition to the fact of being socially better valued: they could, for example, have priority in obtaining visasThey will be exempt from having to leave a deposit in hotels or rent an apartment (although this only applies to some cities).

This is a system that has been described by the government as a method for those who are trustworthy and worthy of trust to act freely while those who are untrustworthy and commit various crimes will find it difficult to act as they please. This concept can be dangerous, anywhere on the globe: dissent or particular ideologies could easily be repressed and punished.Even scientific advances contrary to the opinion or interests of classes closer to power could be curbed.

Altering behavior

In addition to the above, this scoring system may have another type of risk: profoundly altering our behavior, even where surveillance does not reach.

The main advantage is that it increases safety in terms of Blood crimes, and also decreases the possibility of breaking the law, which could lead to reduced recklessness such as those that lead to a traffic accident.

The adverse consequences are clear. There is a loss of freedom and privacyThe adverse consequences are clear. There is a loss of freedom and privacy, leaving the totality of our behavior exposed and being constantly judged by other people whose ideas do not necessarily correspond to our own.

Also non-criminal and non-harmful behavior can also be judged.The social and personal habits of individuals and divergences from the norm could be undermined. Likewise, spontaneity would be lost and every act would become much more controlled, due to the fear of possible reprisals. This puts the citizen under high pressure in all areas of his life, generating stress and anxiety that can diminish his capacities and even damage his health.

Another element to take into account is the possible desperate search for social approvalThe evaluation and the score we have can lead to an obsessive or histrionic point: although in principle the score itself is not shared with the rest of the citizens, the fact of being valued in a better or worse way will make some people look for approval above all, in a compulsive and desperate way.

Finally, we can find another risk: the sale of our data to third party companies so that they can benefit and try to attract us to their products. Although this is something that is normally done when entering different websites and social networks, it requires an implicit acceptance that these websites have at least part of our information and it is not something that is done just for the sake of it.