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 Proposed system of personal data will record ‘trustworthiness’ rating
by Simon Denyer
Imagine a world where an authoritarian government monitors everything you do, gathers huge amounts of data on almost every interaction you make, and awards you a single score that measures how “trustworthy” you are. In this world, anything from defaulting on a loan to criticising the ruling party, from running a red light to failing to care for your parents properly, could cause you to lose points. And in this world your score becomes the ultimate truth of who you are – determining whether you can borrow money, get your children into the best schools or travel abroad; whether you get a room in a fancy hotel, a seat in a top restaurant – or even just get a date.
This could be China by 2020. It is the scenario contained in China’s ambitious plans to develop a far-reaching social credit system, a plan that the Communist party hopes will build a culture of “sincerity” and a “harmonious socialist society” where “keeping trust is glorious”. A high-level policy document released in September 2016 listed the sanctions that could be imposed on any person or company deemed to have fallen short. The main principle: “If trust is broken in one place, restrictions are imposed everywhere.” A whole range of privileges would be denied, while people and companies breaking social trust would also be subject to expanded daily supervision and random inspections.
The ambition is to collect every bit of information available online about China’s companies and citizens in a single place – and then assign each of them a score based on their political, commercial, social and legal “credit”. The government hasn’t announced exactly how the plan will work – for example, how scores will be compiled and different qualities included. But the idea is that good behaviour will be rewarded and bad behaviour punished, with the Communist party acting as the ultimate judge. This is what China calls “Internet Plus”, but critics call it a 21st-century police state.
At the heart of the social credit system is an attempt to control China’s poorly regulated market economy, to punish companies selling poisoned food or phony medicine, to expose doctors taking bribes and uncover con men preying on the vulnerable. Yet the plans take on an authoritarian aspect: this is not just about regulating the economy, but also about creating a new socialist utopia under the Communist party’s benevolent guidance. The Communist party may be obsessed with control, but it is also sensitive to public opinion, and authorities were forced to backtrack after a pilot project in southern China in 2010 provoked a backlash.
That project, launched in Jiangsu province’s Suining County in 2010, gave citizens points for good behaviour, up to a maximum of 1,000. But a minor violation of traffic rules would cost someone 20 points, and running a red light, driving while drunk or paying a bribe would cost 50. Some of the penalties showed the party’s desire to regulate its citizens’ private lives – participating in anything deemed to be a cult or failing to care for elderly relatives incurred a 50-point penalty. Other penalties reflected the party’s obsession with maintaining public order and crushing any challenge to its authority – causing a “disturbance” that blocks party or government offices meant 50 points off; using the internet to falsely accuse others resulted in a 100-point deduction. Winning a “national honour” – such as being classified as a model citizen or worker – added 100 points to someone’s score. On this basis, citizens were classified into four levels: those given an “A” grade qualified for government support when starting a business and preferential treatment when applying to join the party, government or army; or applying for a promotion. People with “D” grades were excluded from official support or employment.
The Suining government later told state media that it had revised the project, still recording social credit scores but abandoning the A-to-D classifications. Officials declined to be interviewed. At the same time, the central government aims to police the sort of corporate malfeasance that saw tens of thousands of babies hospitalised after consuming adulterated milk and infant formula in 2008, and millions of children given compromised vaccines this year.
Under government-approved pilot projects, eight private companies have set up credit databases that compile a wide range of online, financial and legal information. One of the most popular is Sesame Credit, part of the giant Alibaba e-commerce company that runs the world’s largest online shopping platform. Tens of millions of users with high scores have been able to rent cars and bicycles without leaving deposits, company officials say, and can avoid long lines at hospitals by paying fees after leaving with a few taps on a smartphone.
William Glass, a threat intelligence analyst at cyber security expert FireEye, says a centralised system would be both vulnerable and immensely attractive to hackers. “There is a big market for this stuff, and as soon as this system sets up there is great incentive for cybercriminals and even state-backed actors to go in, whether to steal information or even to alter it,” he said. “This system will be the ground truth of who you are. But considering that all this information is stored digitally, it is certainly not immutable, and people can potentially go in and change it.”
Source: The Guardian Weekly, 18 Nov 2016, Washington Post
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