A FRIEND OF mine, who runs a large television production company in the car-mad city of Los Angeles, recently noticed that his intern, an aspiring filmmaker from the People’s Republic of China, was walking to work.
WHEN HE OFFERED to arrange a swifter mode of transportation, she declined. When he asked why, she explained that she “needed the steps” on her Fitbit to sign in to her social media accounts. If she fell below the right number of steps, it would lower her health and fitness rating, which is part of her social rating, which is monitored by the government. A low social rating could prevent her from working or traveling abroad.
China’s social rating system, which was announced by the ruling Communist Party in 2014, will soon be a fact of life for many more Chinese.
By 2020, if the Party’s plan holds, every footstep, keystroke, like, dislike, social media contact, and posting tracked by the state will affect one’s social rating.
Personal “creditworthiness” or “trustworthiness” points will be used to reward and punish individuals and companies by granting or denying them access to public services like health care, travel, and employment, according to a plan released last year by the municipal government of Beijing. High-scoring individuals will find themselves in a “green channel,” where they can more easily access social opportunities, while those who take actions that are disapproved of by the state will be “unable to move a step.”
Big Brother is an emerging reality in China. Yet in the West, at least, the threat of government surveillance systems being integrated with the existing corporate surveillance capacities of big-data companies like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon into one gigantic all-seeing eye appears to trouble very few people—even as countries like Venezuela have been quick to copy the Chinese model.
Still, it can’t happen here, right? We are iPhone owners and Amazon Prime members, not vassals of a one-party state. We are canny consumers who know that Facebook is tracking our interactions and Google is selling us stuff.
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DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
OH but you dumb-asses keep thinking this will never happen here, but you all said the same thing about the police state and that politicians are not corrupt and evil, yet there they are just that!!!! But as long as you can pay 800 bucks for the next iphone right? where you so stupid you walk int to pols and walls...
ReplyDeleteI keep telling you technology is the mark of the beast... you will see... once you get this here in america... They already are stating a program to track you driving and charge you per mile you drive so, it surly can't be true that this will ever get to the USA right...
ReplyDeleteAnd that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
ReplyDeleteThe cheering (IN THE USA!!) is deafening.
ReplyDeleteApparently, most of us LOVE being watched, monitored, tracked, photographed, eavesdropped upon, and recorded.
You F'ing idiots.
You think ANY of that is for YOUR benefit??
Wait until they kick your door down in a SWAT raid for doing something "wrong" (which wasn't really "wrong", just not anything THEY liked).
I'll bet your inane cheering will stop then. It'll be too late, but you'll stop.
this is the beast warned about in revelations! one can not buy or sell unless marked. think about this and your cell phone along with associated technology you are being bombarded with every day! tracked logged and marked!
ReplyDelete