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Inside China's Vast New Experiment in Social Ranking

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Re: Inside China's Vast New Experiment in Social Ranking

#2
As alarming as this is (and it is alarming) at least it's explicit.

Another worrisome case is of blacklists/rankings that you can't see. No-fly lists that no one knows why you are on. Secret watch lists. Conspiracies against people with opposing political views with no clear way to know what views may have triggered this and no path to straighten a misunderstanding up.

I oppose oppression in all forms but if we are going to have it, explicit is better than implicit. (And flat is better than nested:).

Re: Inside China's Vast New Experiment in Social Ranking

#5
post #2

As alarming as this is (and it is alarming) at least it's explicit. Another worrisome case is of blacklists/rankings that you can't see. No-fly lists that no one knows why you are on. Secret watch lists. Conspiracies against people with opposing political views with no clear way to know what views may have triggered this and no path to straighten a misunderstanding up. I oppose oppression in all forms but if we are g…

Note that if you are on the bad credit list, you aren’t allowed to fly or take the train. I guess this is so you can’t flee from your debts.

Re: Inside China's Vast New Experiment in Social Ranking

#6
Couple of questions come to find:

a. How is this data accessed? Can anyone in my network access this? Because even if we draw a parallel to credit scores, not everyone can access my credit scores.

b. What kind of behavior is this encouraging? Most credit scores track bigger picture items - credit card payment, loan payments etc. But, suppose I can see my credit score go up and down then I might end up trying to avoid a specific behavior.

c. How does the scoring work? If I buy say from a company known to sell VPN services, do I lose points?

Re: Inside China's Vast New Experiment in Social Ranking

#7

We have private market ranking systems like your credit score. Quantifying karma is a good idea, if implemented correctly and within limitations of accuracy.

> Quantifying karma is a good idea

Why? Many people hold many opinions about me, almost all of which are wrong. I don't see the value in a global database of opinions about me which I can't control and which will affect me in ways I can't predict.

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