Uh Oh, Silicon Valley Is Building Chinese-Style Social Credit System

Fast Company ^ | Mike Elgan

[nathanbedford]

One survey found that 80% of Chinese citizens surveyed either somewhat or strongly approve of social credit system.

Before we throw the baby out with the bathwater, we ought to consider what life can be like without corporations rendering judgments of probabilities based on pattern behavior. Just one example: the government bullied banks into making loans against the banks' better judgment to persons of color who proved very bad risks in the event. This was done for political reasons in which a politician's judgment was used to override the considered judgments of experienced bank personnel about the kinds of people who are sound credit risks. Concededly, those risks were greatly amplified by the behavior of the banks in bundling the mortgages while assuming that the federal government would stand behind the loans in the event of default.

So when we buy car insurance, if we are good risks, we enjoy a cheaper premium cost and that is as it should be. If we are not a statistical risk of disease, we should enjoy cheaper health insurance prices -at least that was the conventional thinking until the Democrats convinced the world that those with pre-existing conditions should be treated by those who had paid their premiums for their individual policies.

The example of the mortgage fiasco illustrates the real danger when the government intervenes in the marketplace to make things "fair." An even worse situation will arise when the government avails itself of the data and then we are into a Chinese tyranny. We must not be naïve, rather we must expect the government to avail itself of these data but we must also expect that the government will be utterly biased in what data it seeks, witness the squabble over citizenship questions in the census. We have also seen that the government is quite capable of selectively accumulating data when it comes to global warming etc.

Technology is only making an old problem more immediate.

[GOPJ]

China’s social credit system might work for United States criminals on probation... but now is the time to build laws around the system so it doesn't go beyond assisting criminals reentering society...

Criminals have lost freedoms since the dawn of justice in exchange for protecting the general population. This could be one more freedom lost that might help with rehabilitation.

But free citizens can never be treated as criminals... so WRITE THE LAWS NOW TO BOX THIS TOTALITARIAN HORROR.

[GOPJ]

China’s social credit system might work for United States criminals on probation... but now is the time to build laws around the system so it doesn't go beyond assisting criminals reentering society...

Criminals have lost freedoms since the dawn of justice in exchange for protecting the general population. This could be one more freedom lost but one that might help with rehabilitation.

That said, free citizens MUST NEVER be treated as criminals... so WRITE THE LAWS NOW TO BOX THIS TOTALITARIAN HORROR.

[Night Hides Not]

To follow up your comment, Nathan, there is a potential antidote to those who long for such a "social credit system".

IMO, it is imperative that American Civics classes be thoroughly taught in our schools, and it should start in middle school/junior high school, not the last year of high school. Let's face it, most seniors are on auto pilot during their last year of high school. Not sure how other states teach history, but a full year of Texas history is taught in middle school (7th grade IIRC).

Our Founding Fathers designed the Constitution to limit the extent to which government could intrude in our lives. We are the only country where it's been specifically stated that we have rights endowed by our Creator, that government cannot abridge.

Such instruction would have to include the philosophical underpinnings of the Bill of Rights, and the various aspects of why we are a republic, and not a democracy.

[AppyPappy]

It’s a High Tech version of Sharia Law.

[goodnesswins]

YEEESSS....I HATE it when I hear...”Google it”....

[cowboyusa]

Worse, the mark.

[bgill]

They started this a while back.

[The Toll]

It’s OK! The President say’s he’s “monitoring” the situation. Despite the fact that his internet support from 2014 has all been banned already.

[Pajamajan]

Absolutely disgusting! The only reason these ingrates are rich and successful is because they live in a free country.

Pray that God will inspire some other technology to be developed, by those who value freedom, that will make them (Goog..exc.) obsolete.. Or pray that the tech tyrants wake up, and stop helping brutal government officials oppress and terrorize their people.

[setter]

“It’s a High Tech version of Sharia Law.”

Wait until the poor and empowered women find out they can no longer have children out of wedlock under this system.

[reformedliberal]

...”Google it”....
___________________________________
Over 90% of everything done on the internet is controlled, one way or another, by Google.

OTOH, when researching internet marketing recently (in light of the legal problems possibly facing Big Tech), I ran across another interesting stat: 50% of all Google searches do NOT result in a click-thru.

Marketers use Questions Also Asked and Related Searches as secondary keywords to help their SEO scores in ranking higher in the search pages. These 2 categories are culled from searcher actions and are thought to indicate searcher intent, which it is Google’s aim to satisfy. (Bear in mind that, with the dumbing-down of the populace, it is possible that *searcher intent* is less informed than Google thinks.)

However, it is the *rich snippets*, those bits of text from the content copy that often appear under the headline, that result in increased click-thru rates. This could indicate that, actually, content is key for searcher intent.

As of a week ago, rants were appearing in the marketing space railing against browser privacy tools. Limited-time cookies, for example, impede long-term analytics and make it difficult for marketers to track which content in which time period garnered the most responses. Marketers evidenced unmediated contempt for searcher privacy preferences.

Google itself changes the search rankings several times a day. Rankings are tailored to individuals based on language, geo-location and prior search history. Yet, those trying to sell something on the mass market elevate Google search rankings to marketing canon. This is because they know searchers usually click on the 1st 3 results, which is why those top entries are now paid advertising.

StartPage rides the Google backbone and uses most of its algorithms, but without the multi-level personal information collected by Google.

In my experience, searches for individuals and translation results are superior on Google, but most other keywords are about the same on the more private search engines.

[i_robot73]

Considering the (R)N(C)’s [party of “small govt”] baby, the NSA, has pretty much gutted the 4th, I don’t foresee but a handful (@ most) whom would take up the Uniparty role of ‘minority opposition’ troupe...before ‘begrudgingly’ voting to pass this further monstrosity.

[Pajamajan]

"One survey found that 80% of Chinese citizens surveyed either somewhat or strongly approve of social credit system."

Surprised it wasn't 100% of Chinese citizens approve. The 20% not approving probably have lowered their social credit scores.

[gaijin]

Detailed, 50-min interview by Vorhies, the brave Google rebel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buYS1biprSs

[gaijin]

[rivercat]

There was a Black Mirror episode about the pitfalls of this type of system. Truly horrifying!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosedive_(Black_Mirror)

[Oatka]

Has anyone checked out mylife.com? It has more information about us than you would expect, and they have Reputation Scores for everyone.

I went there and plugged in my name - and had the hair rise on the back of my neck. I advise everyone to try it and see the amount of info available to anyone who wants to pay for it.

And their "Reputation Score" reeks of Orwell.

[tbw2]

Sesame Credit, USA
https://libertyislandmag.com/2019/02/12/new-sci-fi-fiction-sesame-credit-usa/

[tbw2]

Liberals seem to have taken Cass Sustain’s book “Nudge” to heart. Let’s use AI and software systems to give people an artificial illusion of choice while pushing them toward the “right” solutions.

Removing the “wrong” solutions is made possible by literal oppression by algorithm, removing content that liberals don’t like and purging people who share it often.