According to the Chinese State Council, all individuals will be rated based on big data collected from the following criteria in order to reach what they call social harmony and harmonious interpersonal relationships: Healthcare, hygiene and birth control. Social security, care for elderly and charity. Labour and employment. Education and Scientific Research. Culture, sports and tourism. Environmental protection and energy saving. Internet applications and services. Peoples economic and social life. Adding to this, a local Chinese media narrow all the credit scoring categories down to five sub-categories, which are social connections, consumption behavior, security, wealth and compliance.

Also, the State Council has publicly stated that it directly allows newspapers, television and online media to make information public about certain individuals accused of trust breaking, while also being allowed to make these individuals’ punishment publicly available. The direct goal for this is to create public opinion pressure on those affected individuals and any other individuals that are in danger of receiving a lower score. Hence, in this society, nothing is secret when it comes to your personal data.

Restrictions will be imposed on you

Chinese citizens can end up being met with various sanctions and restrictions if they have a low credit score and thereby deemed untrustworthy. According to the State Council General Office, then finding yourself on the black list will result in restrictions on: applying for social security fund support, on taking higher management positions, restrictions on becoming a civil servant, restrictions on bank loans, restrictions on working within the food and medicine industry and restrictions on trading various assets. But even more restrictions could be imposed on your allowance to: riding trains and aircrafts, on visiting restaurants and hotels, having sons and daughters attending certain high-schools, on purchasing insurances, on renovating your own house and finally restrictions can be imposed on your internet speed.

Even more restrictions can be imposed other than what is listed here, but the key point is that peoples’ freedom can be undermined to a great extend directly by the Chinese government based on data and an algorithm on which you have no control, and which lacks clear transparency into how works.

What is also worrying is that people cannot opt out of the system and can never be forgotten, meaning that if you are not allowed to use either aircrafts or trains you are trapped inside a system, which it is impossible to escape from. This will have large impacts on your own children and their children as well, as they are themselves entitled to a worse score for only being in the same family as you. Therefore, entire generations will find it difficult to escape from a system that deems you not-trustworthy, based on data which is taken out of its context, and which the news media have the right to make public to everyone.

In addition, by rating citizens’ social behavior, preferences and interpersonal relationships, the government indirectly has the power to steer and shape peoples’ actions and behaviors into the exact direction that the government wishes. Also, since the algorithms are not made public, there is a risk of unfair preferences being made towards certain types of ethnicities, religions and genders without this ever being made known to the general public. Furthermore, the government will be in a position to change the algorithm and the type of data collected at any given time.

Ultimately, socially accepted behavior is defined by the government, and citizens cannot criticize the system as that would negatively affect their scores.

Is the system all that bad after all?

China has historically had, and still has a more poorly regulated market economy compared to many Western countries, and in such an economy the sale of counterfeit products and substandard products where companies sell poisoned food and medicine is a big problem. Furthermore, many of the Chinese citizens do not have a credit score and never had one, which means they are not able to receive credit and make loans for cars and houses. This social credit system is supposed to make up for that by creating more control and transparency mechanisms. Also, due to such poor market regulations and bribe practices, there is a danger for foreign companies to do business in China, hence giving the government a reason to create more transparency and control. Therefore, by trying to prevent illegal behavior, to ensure contracts are being honored, and to strengthen the environmental focus, may all help in attracting more companies to do business in China.



In addition, one could argue that such as system helps in creating better democratic societies by enhancing transparency, and by ensuring that everybody knows the score of everybody. You even know what data has been collected about yourself, and what your own score is. Also, it is already natural in many countries to rate services such as companies, doctors and musicians online, which could let you to argue that the social credit system is just a natural progression from this.

Lastly, seen from the perspective of the individual, many citizens with high social credit scores can avoid leaving deposits when renting cars, bicycles and hotels, can avoid long queues at hospitals, can avoid scammers on social media and dating sites, and in general receive many societal benefits. Therefore, being a good citizen is something to strive for and helps you achieve various things in a better and easier way for yourself and your family.