Recent months have once again seen public debate on the extent to which governments are allowed to infringe our privacy. Despite their assurances that civilians have nothing to fear, we are still distrustful of their intentions. Although it is a sensible idea to be somewhat distrustful of governing parties, it is surprising and even somewhat hypocritical that we view governmental institutions as untrustworthy, yet allow companies to collect and sell virtually all kinds of personal information. Recent developments in China have put this approach in perspective. Tencent, game developer with large stakes in numerous games and projects, and Alibaba, one of the world’s largest retailers, have teamed together in the development of what they call “sesame credit”. Although still in the voluntary testing phase, it is expected to become mandatory in China in 2020 (ExtraCredit, 2015). The idea behind Sesame credit is the gamification of society. Based on the information companies are able to gather about you, such as sales patterns, internet behaviour, social networks etc., you get assigned a score. The higher the score, the more perks you are able to get. Think of easier access to housing, a higher likelihood of getting a government job, or the necessary paperwork for foreign travels. Those with a low score on the other hand, are restricted this kind of access and experience negative consequences. (CNBC, 2017). Although the program is build by two private companies, there is most definitely a political incentive. Scores are not assigned based on objective measures, but on the extent to which a civilian shows behaviour which is seen as desirable by the Chinese government. Share a link of how well the Chinese economy is doing, and your score goes up. Comment on political activism or buy an imported product, and your score goes down (BBC, 2015) By implementing a system that uses the exact same methods of reward, punishment, and achievement as highly addictive video games do, Sesame credit enables a population to strictly enforce behaviour. As your score and network-connections mutually influence each other, merely being associated with a low-score individual decreases your own score. This may very well lead alienation of some and the formation of a artificial “caste” system, where your social worth is based on an algorithm rather than genetics.
It is perhaps the most successful, yet undesired, form of governmental control. Don’t enforce your citizens with aggression and force, but have them enforce themselves. Nonetheless, there are upsides to such a system. In a massive country such as China, where personal and credit information is in many cases impossible to acquire, a system such as Sesame Credit can be a solution (BBC. 2015) More information usually is a good thing, but it is worth considering its destructive side as well.
Hatton, C. (2015). China’s social credit: Beijing set up a huge system. Available from: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-34592186
Ming, C. (2017). FICO with nice characteristics: nice rewards, but punishing penalties. Available from: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/16/china-social-credit-system-ant-financials-sesame-credit-and-others-give-scores-that-go-beyond-fico.html
Huang, Z. (2017). All Chinese citizens now have a score based on how well we live, and mine sucks. Available from: https://qz.com/519737/all-chinese-citizens-now-have-a-score-based-on-how-well-we-live-and-mine-sucks/
Extracredit, (2015). Animation available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHcTKWiZ8sI
Interesing blog Joost! This really could become the most undesirable form of governmental control. In this system, you will not only behave socially desirable because the government is watching you. No, you do it for the good of the people that are affiliated with you. Because if you do something wrong, all the others will see their credit go down.
Even worse, a sin someone’s father did, can determine the credit of the children. For example, it could force others to now be affiliated with you anymore (e.g. parents telling their children not to play with that one kid, because of his father’s bad credit). In this way, the system will be sell-reinforcing: bad credits being affiliated with bad credits and the other way around. This would create a hugh social gap, kind of like the caste (kastenstelsel) in India.