What is A Social Credit Score

 And Why Do I Care?

There has been a bit of chatter in recent months about "social credit score," what it is, whether it's "real," and if it's friend or foe.

In brief, the system is reportedly in practice in China (the government of the People's Republic of China). "The social credit initiative calls for the establishment of a record system so that businesses, individuals and government institutions can be tracked and evaluated for trustworthiness."

Initiated in 2009, a national pilot program is said to have been launched in 2014 with 8 credit scoring organizations. 

Needless to say, the concept has resulted in quite a lot of discussion, and not a little disagreement, about whether such a system is a positive, or a negative, and whether the end result is better citizen behavior, or more government control of citizens. Or all of those.

What's indisputable is that the technology exists to track (and rate) individual's behavior. Naturally, there will always be some who fly under the radar, refusing to use anything but cash, not owning a cell phone, and living off the "grid." But such cases are rare, and most of us leave immense digital footprints that, though they are many, for computers they're fairly easy to sort, quantify, and qualify.

Not long ago, I attended an event at which "no cash" was accepted. I was somewhat surprised, given that cash is the "legal tender" and is supposed to be accepted for any financial transaction. Not too much later, I went to another event where "no credit cards" were accepted, only cash. This got me thinking about how much information we do leave in our tracks as we go about our daily lives. 

Our phones, which handily can track our steps and map our destinations can therefore pinpoint our location at any given time, and record how many miles we travel in a day, how many miles our car gets per gallon, and, one would gather, how many steps we take in a day (a means of monitoring health). While phones have long since been able to keep track of how many minutes a day our household spend on a phone, the newer personal phones can track a great deal more than that.

Do we eat a lot of fast food? Do we donate - and if so, to whom or what causes? Are we spending a lot of time on social media, and if so, with what platforms, and which "influencers" are we paying attention to? 

Since most of us are connected to streaming services now, what kind of entertainment are we watching, and how many minutes (or hours) per day are we involved with it? 

You get the idea. There is little we do these days that can't be noted, and couldn't be used to create a "plus" or a "minus" for us, depending on who decides what is good or bad activity.

And this, of course, is where the discussion arises about the very idea of a "social credit score."  We've long since accepted the idea that our financial credit score is tracked, and what we do - whether we pay our bills on time, how much credit do we carry, what do we earn - is noted and creates a number that is associated with us, and denotes us a good or bad credit risk. And that can determine whether we get a loan for a new car, or a home mortgage. 

But what about our social behavior? Is giving to a political cause a positive or a negative, or does that depend on what political cause we give to? How many square feet of living space is our "fair share?" Do we really need a huge SUV, or could we get by using the bus? How many visits to bars or liquor stores do we make per week, and is that a health risk? Do we weigh too much, get too much fast food, stop by the bakery too often? Or can we read a social credit score as an indicator that a particular person really is being selfish, greedy, or posing a risk to his fellow citizens? Would such indicators possibly halt a violent incident in the making because all the "signs" were there? Could a score reveal a person's best path in life, and serve as a warning that they were missing their opportunities? 

As this column has often noted, most technology can work for good or ill - though the possibility of it taking off, driverless, once it reaches a certain level of sophistication always exists, and that's another risk altogether. But as of now, we still can "pull a plug" on something we deem too risky and too powerful to be in the hands of any individual or organization. 

But the idea of a "social credit score" is one we should be familiar with, if indeed reports of it being enabled in China are true - and one we should be prepared to harness if need be, and use only for good. Unless, of course, the horse is already out of the barn.