China's plan is to give each citizen a social credit score, which goes far beyond the traditional credit score based on finances. The score can fluctuate based on a range of behaviors, like whether you jaywalk or buy Chinese-made goods or buy too many video games. If your score gets too low, you can be banned from buying a plane ticket, renting a house, accessing high-speed internet or getting a loan. Sensetime, one of China's most successful artificial intelligence companies, has created smart cameras for the government that can help catch criminals but also track average citizens. As people, bikes, cars and buses pass in front of the cameras, identifiers pop up. "It can recognize more than 4,000 vehicles," CEO Xu Li explains. "We can tell whether it is an adult, a child, male or female." With China's millions of surveillance cameras, the government can record jaywalkers at city intersections, zero in on their faces and then shame them on public video screens.
Police in Beijing have been seen wearing glasses that resemble Google Glass and can recognize faces linked to the government's national database. The fear is that the government will use this social credit scoring system to punish people who aren't sufficiently loyal to the Communist party. Trying to clear your name or fight your score is nearly impossible, since there is no real due process. For now, technically, participating in China's Citizen Scores is voluntary. But by 2020 it will be mandatory. The behaviour of every single citizen and legal person (which includes every company or other entity)in China will be rated and ranked, whether they like it or not.
Credits:
https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/china-turns-to-tech-to-monitor-shame-and-rate-citizens
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