While the expanding Orwellian eye may improve “public safety,” it poses a chilling new threat to civil liberties in a country that already has one of the most oppressive and controlling governments in the world.Ĭhina’s evolving algorithmic surveillance system will rely on the security organs of the communist party-state to filter, collect, and analyze staggering volumes of data flowing across the internet. A vast accompanying network of surveillance cameras will constantly monitor citizens’ movements, purportedly to reduce crime and terrorism. Harnessing advances in artificial intelligence and data mining and storage to construct detailed profiles on all citizens, China’s communist party-state is developing a “citizen score” to incentivize “good” behavior. The country is racing to become the first to implement a pervasive system of algorithmic surveillance. This society may seem dystopian, but it isn’t farfetched: It may be China in a few years. It won’t be long before the police show up at your door. If you commit a crime-or simply jaywalk-facial recognition algorithms will match video footage of your face to your photo in a national ID database. When you step outside your door, your actions in the physical world are also swept into the dragnet: The government gathers an enormous collection of information through the video cameras placed on your street and all over your city.
To calculate the score, private companies working with your government constantly trawl through vast amounts of your social media and online shopping data. If you make political posts online without a permit, or question or contradict the government’s official narrative on current events, however, your score decreases. A high score allows you access to faster internet service or a fast-tracked visa to Europe. Your “citizen score” follows you wherever you go. Imagine a society in which you are rated by the government on your trustworthiness.