eBusiness Weekly
Who says government can’t innovate? In one Chinese city, the local court system recently launched a smartphone-based map that displays the location and identity of anyone within 500 meters who’s landed on a government creditworthiness blacklist.
Worried the person seated next to you at Starbucks might not have paid a court-approved fine? The Deadbeat Map, as it’s known, provides pinpoint confirmation, the ability to share that information via social media and — if so inclined — a reporting function to notify the authorities.
It’s chilling, dystopian — and likely to be quite popular. Chinese have already embraced a whole range of private and government systems that gather, aggregate and distribute records of digital and offline behaviour. Depicted outside of China as a creepy digital panopticon, this network of so-called social-credit systems is seen within China as a means to generate something the country sorely lacks: trust. For that, perpetual surveillance and the loss of privacy are a small price to pay.
As in many developing countries, the fact is that China’s economic growth has outpaced its ability to create and police institutions that promote trust between citizens and businesses.
For example, a decade after Chinese milk producers were revealed to be adulterating infant formula, Chinese parents still shun the country’s dairy industry and distrust of food producers remains almost universal.
Meanwhile, China remains the counterfeiting capital of the world. Some of its most recognisable companies — including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Tencent Holdings Ltd, and Pinduoduo Inc. — are known as thriving markets for fakes, thereby undermining the credibility of Chinese e-commerce in general.
Trust between individuals isn’t much healthier. Scams and frauds — including dating scams — targeting individuals and families are daily fodder on Chinese news programmes. This contributes to a general mood of suspiciousness.
The Chinese government has long viewed these issues as more than social problems. Building a “consumption-based” economy, as China has long aspired to do, requires consumers with access to credit.
So, in 2014, the government launched a roadmap for establishing a “social-credit system” with mechanisms for “rewarding trustworthiness and punishing untrustworthiness.”
In its most basic form, that might mean a company chooses to get into the credit-reporting business and starts collecting individual consumer financial data. The government’s interests are far broader. For example, the National Travel Bureau collects information on “uncivilised” travellers, publicizes it and uses it to keep those travellers off planes and trains.
Today, there are more than 40 social-credit systems operating across China. Some are private: Sesame Credit, a subsidiary of Alibaba, collects and aggregates data generated on Alibaba services, such as a customer’s payment history and record of time and money spent online, then devises a score used to extend credit and other benefits.
Others are run by the government, such as a national list of individuals who have defaulted on court judgments.
Those on it are restricted from a range of activities, from staying at luxury hotels to enrolling their children in expensive schools. (Now they might also find themselves on the Deadbeat Map). — Bloomberg.
