The Social Credit System in China as the All-Embracing Technology of Mass Surveillance Conducted by the Public and Private Actors

We have many technologies which are improving the living standard. But what if such a technology concerns all the spheres of life and action, and establishes new mode of organized surveillance? Is it only a change in governance or a really all-embracing technology, combined with all polices, directed to all citizens? The paper puts out a thesis that the example of such a technology can be a Social Credit System, which has been introduced in China since 2014. Up to 2020 all the citizens of Mainland China are to be included to this system. The first aim of it is to improve people’s lives through enhancing connections between existing technologies (especially in cities, making them “smart” as in the concept of smart cities) and also through rewarding “best” citizens, so people who will gain more “points” than others (the system will be checking citizens’ behavior and giving them points). Of course, gaining new points will depend on assessment, conducted according to specified rules – especially legal ones, but not only. The behavior of citizens will also be assessed in terms of e. g. their attitude to work and daily duties, eating habits, and - of course - attitude towards the government as well as local authorities and others. People who will gain more points, will have some privileges – for instance, finding the job will easier for them as well as travelling abroad or admission to university. Moreover, the system will establish a close cooperation between the state and private actors which will be obliged to provide the data of their users directly to the authorities. Also the biggest corporations will cooperate to create a network of linked platforms, social networking sites and services to collect the information about citizens’ activities, habits, interests and concerns. Therefore, the main distinguishing feature of this system would be, according to its inventors, the combination of data collected on different platforms into one holistic view of each citizen in terms of features considered important by the authorities to assess his behavior. This the reason why this system is often called as “national reputation system” or the system of mass surveillance, regarding not only the massive scale of monitoring people’s lives but also the issue that all the possible technologies are to be used to improve its functioning. The aim of the paper is to outline the directions of current development of this system, its influence on Chinese society and the consequences of this innovation on quality of governance as well as on the social matters. It is especially interesting because in fact functioning of this system has raised positive feedback from citizens and is very popular among them. Therefore, also its purposes and effectiveness of its ongoing process of implementation will be verified, taking into account the current China’s public policy. Important will also to sketch a research agenda on this issue, regarding its complexity and a real power which is creating through it.