China is about to embark on an unprecedented social experiment where people will be rated based on a wide-range of criteria, and that rating will essentially determine the quality of their lives. The program is expected to roll out nationwide in 2020, and participation is mandatory. Think about that for a second. More than a billion people will be continually monitored, ranked and rated by a government that already has unprecedented control over their lives.
Constant Surveillance
Data on everything, from what people purchase to what they eat or what they do in their free time will be collected, sorted and used to paint a picture of their value to society. There are also rumors that part of the rating will measure a person’s character by who they associate with. This system is also intended to permeate every aspect of society that goes far-beyond government monitoring. Ratings will be used to determine what kinds of schools kids can get into. They will be used to determine creditworthiness. They will determine where someone can live or their attractiveness to an employer.
Slippery-Slope
As concern grows over how our data is being used in this country, we should keep a watchful eye on China to see how bad things can really get. For the time being, there are at least some minimal controls over what information governments and companies are allowed to collect and how it can be used. However, we are also on a slippery-slope in terms of following a similar trajectory in the not-too-distant future. The difference between our future and what’s happening in China is that we voluntarily made that choice as a society through apathy, laziness or indifference.
Make no mistake, we are getting ever-closer to living in a technocratic surveillance state that can potentially have an impact on every aspect of society. You can use your imagination to consider what the ramifications will be, for good or for bad, but it will be next to impossible to live totally off-the-grid once the data genie gets out of the bottle. However, this era will most-likely eventually usher in an unprecedented period of direct governmental control and surveillance over our lives.
How Will this Impact You?
Take some time to think about how this kind of “new society” will impact your ability to be anonymous, self-directing or self-sufficient in the future. Think about how we’re feeding into this system now by not being vigilant when it comes to minimizing the amount of information that we release into the digital universe. Think about what you can be doing to keep your digital footprint as small as possible in order to stay under the radar as much as possible. Only time will tell if we’re heading into a dystopian nightmare like China will soon experience, or whether or not we can strike some kind of balance that enables at least a token degree of freedom and self-direction.
While there’s currently a lot of noise out there about entities pushing boundaries when it comes to using our data, people really aren’t willing to give up the benefits of being connected in order to protect their privacy. Consequently, big data is here to stay, and it will continue to have a growing influence on our lives. The question is how will you adapt and cope when that time comes.
