Your smartphone is a snitch, and it's been ratting you out for years. Every app you use, every ride you take, every post you like — it's all part of an invisible social credit system that's been shaping your life without your knowledge.
Western societies have already embraced social credit systems, we just refuse to call them that, writes Natalie Pang in The Nexus. Our everyday digital interactions are constantly evaluated, scored, and used to determine our access to services and opportunities.
Every time an algorithm evaluates your trustworthiness, reliability, or social value, whether for a loan, a job, a date, or a ride, you're participating in a social credit system. The scoring happens constantly, invisibly, and across dozens of platforms that weave into your daily life. The only difference between your phone and China's social credit system is that China tells you what they're doing. We pretend our algorithmic reputation scores are just "user experience features." At least Beijing admits they're gamifying human behavior.
Previously:
• It could happen here: How China's social credit system demonstrates the future of social control in smart cities
• China's pervasive 'social credit' scheme is still in development, but already profoundly shaping public behavior
• The predictable dystopian trajectory of China's Citizen Scores
• China's 'citizen scores' used to blacklist 6.7m people from using high-speed rail or flying
• China's mass surveillance and pervasive social controls are based on a rocket scientist's advocacy for 'systems thinking'
