Is a Chinese Style “Social Credit’ in Australia? By James Reed
We here at Alor.org object to the Chinese government using the expression “social credit,” and I have sent my protest, telling the CCP that the great Major Douglas was there first. So, expect results. But in the meantime, we have the reality that a form of totalitarian control has crept over Australia. The below discussion gives an excellent overview, but it is seen most clearly with the Covid control society, which Australia has adopted; even the CCP has remarked that Australia has gone beyond even them! Freedom lovers, we are in deep trouble. But long ago, I told you this was coming, but no-one listens to uncle Jimmy.
“China has developed what some are describing as a chilling digital dictatorship, with a new national system that monitors all citizens on a 24/7 basis and ranks them on their behaviour now fully operational.
Underpinning the new system is the latest advancements in facial recognition and biometric technology, a model that some argue mirrors programs currently being introduced in Australia.
Could Australia be incrementally setting up a blueprint for a similar system here in the future? In the following subscription piece, we explore the latest developments in digital surveillance from both countries.
CHINA’S ‘SOCIAL CREDIT SYSTEM’
DEVELOPMENT
The Chinese Social Credit System (SCS) is a national ‘reputation system’ being developed by the Chinese government, intended to standardise the assessment of citizen and business ‘social reputation’ through ‘credit’.
In 2014, China’s State Council issued an outline for the social credit system, translated to read “State Council Notice concerning Issuance of the Planning Outline for the Construction of a Social Credit System (2014–2020)”.
Under the plan, a person’s ‘social score’ will be continuously analysed and can move up and down depending on their behaviour in society.
Individuals are rated across four areas: “honesty in government affairs”, “commercial integrity”, “societal integrity”, and “judicial credibility”.
Active pilot programs have already seen millions of people either begin reap its benefits or suffer its consequences – depending on which end of the scale they sit – with companies already developing IT systems and technology to monitor “antisocial behaviour”.
Underpinning the agenda, points will be lost and gained based on readings from a sophisticated network of 200 million surveillance cameras — a figure set to triple in 18 months.
Within years, an official Party outline claims, it will “allow the trustworthy to roam freely under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step”.
IMPLEMENTATION
The program, since the publishing of the government press release, has seen incremental rollouts across the country, primarily beginning to align in areas such as reform of legislation and business corporate policies.
The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) of China has started a blacklist of debtors with roughly thirty two thousand names, and the People’s Bank of China has licensed eight companies to trial of social credit systems.
The program has been enabled by rapid advances in facial recognition, body scanning and biometric geo-tracking.
Examples of the technology have already been launched across the country, such as ‘Honest Shanghai’ in Shanghai, which uses facial recognition software to browse government records and rates users.
Under this new social experiment, those deemed to be “top citizens” are rewarded bonus points, with the benefits including waived deposits on hotels and rental cars, VIP treatment at airports and more.
On the other side of the coin, jaywalking, late payments on bills or taxes, buying too much alcohol or speaking out against the government, each cost citizens points, according to Business Insider.
In November, a detailed plan was produced for further implementation of the program for 2018-2020. The plans included blacklisting people from public transport and publicly disclosing individuals’ and businesses’ untrustworthiness rating.
In January 2019, the Beijing government officially announced that it will start to test “Personal Credit Score”.
Reuters reported that restrictions on citizens and businesses with low Social Credit ratings would come into effect on May 1st, while several million flight and high-speed train trips have been denied to people who have been blacklisted.
Currently, over 13.7 million people are classified as ‘untrustworthy’ under the system, resulting in millions of plane and train tickets being suspended and activities in society restricted.
AUSTRALIAN SYSTEM?
In Australia, vast changes in surveillance were implemented after the events of September 11th, which saw many countries pass legislation that gives police and intelligence services greater powers and resources as a result.
Sweeping legislative changes and broad anti-terror laws have effectively sanctioned powerful surveillance methods, including the development of vast biometric capabilities for government and the private sector.
Increasingly, we are seeing new programs and technologies be developed as a means of ‘security’ or to ‘prevent terrorism’, such as national databases and increased sharing between domestic and international intelligence communities – particularly the Five Eyes Alliance.
Biometric systems were introduced in Australia at the turn of the century, and specific focus was given to the agenda following the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003.
Australia is already beginning to develop and implement biometric identification systems all across the country, particularly in schooling, workplaces, airports and public transport.
FACIAL RECOGNITION
A multitude of systems are being developed across a variety of industries and avenues of Australian society to monitor, analyse, judge and identify individuals for ‘safety and security’ reasons.
This includes all states and territories handing over driver’s licenses and passport photos for a national identification uses, allowing for real-time facial recognition when matched to state CCTV footage.
These plans were recently unveiled with details surrounding highly controversial changes to ‘anti-terrorism’ measures, including the introduction of a new national facial recognition database.
This new national system parallels the central underlying mechanism operating China’s SCS — that being facial recognition capabilities to monitor individuals in real time and rank them according to their behaviours.
Australia’s leading privacy and civil liberties organisations have called the comprehensive database “incompatible with a free and open society”.
Last week, Perth Airport became Australia’s second international airport to begin installing new facial recognition smart gates, following previous pilot trials introduced at Canberra Airport.
The Australian government has stated their intended goal is to automate 90% of air traveller processing by 2020, and is on track to replace passports with facial recognition capabilities after signing new contracts.
Furthermore, facial recognition technology was deployed across the Gold Coast public transport network early last year, including trains, trams and buses at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
This technology will remain in place indefinitely following the event.
Public transport commuters in Queensland will soon be able to use their faces as a ticket to board trains and buses in the near future, after it was announced that trials will commence to replace the current ‘Go Card’ digital network with facial recognition technology.
Remember, millions of people in China have been banned from travelling via trains, buses and from airports for “unsociable behaviour”.
SMART CITIES
Recently, the Australian government committed to a new “Smart Cities Plan”. The plan sets out the government’s vision for ‘productive and livable cities’ that ‘encourage innovation and growth’.
Key domestic initiatives include the Smart Cities Plan, City Deals, the Smart Cities and Suburbs Program and the National Cities Performance Framework.
Concerns have already been raised by privacy groups and technology experts on the details of smart infrastructure plans, which are set to be trialled in locations such as Darwin, Perth, Newcastle and Melbourne.
In China, smart tech is tackling everything from resource management, environmental issues and traffic congestion, to welfare systems and the ‘lack of social trust’ that led to the development of this ranking system.
The agenda is being coupled with rapid shifts towards a cashless society and digital licenses and identity in Australia, as well as sister programs such as the monitoring via the controversial My Health Record.”
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