An Analysis of the Current State of the Consumer Credit Reporting System in China

Abstract

The Chinese Social Credit System (SCS), known as the first national digitally-implemented credit rating system, consists of two parallel arms: a government-run and a commercial one. The government-run arm of the SCS, especially efforts to blacklist and redlist individuals and organizations, has attracted significant attention worldwide. In contrast, the commercial part has been less often in the public spotlight except for discussions about Zhima Credit.The commercial arm of the SCS, also referred to as the Consumer Credit Reporting System (CCRS), has been under development for about two decades and took a major step forward in 2015 when 8 companies were granted permission to implement pilot consumer credit reporting programs. This development fundamentally increased the reach and impact of the SCS due to these companies’ sizable customer base and access to vast troves of consumer-related information.In this paper, we first map the Chinese CCRS to understand the actors in the credit reporting ecosystem. Then, we study 13 consumer credit reporting companies to examine how they collect and use personal information. Based on the findings, we discuss the relationship between the CCRS and the SCS including the changes in the power relationships between the government, consumer credit reporting companies and Chinese citizens.

Framing Social Credit System: An Experimental Investigation of Social Credit System’s Chilling Effect on Freedom of Expression

“…China has both private and government-run social credit schemes and the two growing programs differ substantially (Kostka, 2019). The more widely used SCSs are those established by private tech businesses (Creemers, 2018;Kostka, 2019) and are also referred to as the Consumer Credit Reporting System (Chen & Grossklags, 2020). To advance the development of a personal credit rating system, the Chinese government enlisted eight tech companies including Tencent and Baidu to allow them to establish and execute their pilot credit systems (Chen & Grosskalgs, 2020;Creemers, 2018;Hatton, 2015).…”

“…The fear stems from the fact that commercial social credit systems may not merely encourage trustworthy behavior but prompt the question of whether Sesame Credit provides users' transaction information to its partnered government bureaus (Ahmed, 2017). These discussions tend to be bedimmed by others in which Sesame Credit is prominent in partnering with the private sector to offer privileges and benefits to high score holders (Ahmed, 2017;Chen & Cheung, 2017), but the privacy concerns and risks linked with the commercial arm of the SCS are rarely examined in existing studies (Chen & Grossklags, 2020).…”

Maschinelle Intelligenz – Evolution oder Lebensqualität

“…Stray vor, die Algorithmen der maschinellen Intelligenz auf die Bedürfnisse von Gemeinschaften auszurichten [ 11 ] Digitale Services, ob sie die Suche von wissenschaftlichen Publikationen, die maschinelle Übersetzung oder die Navigation betreffen, nehmen dem Menschen Kompetenz und Entscheidungen ab, sodass er von den Services abhängig wird. Ein noch viel zu wenig beachtetes und verstandenes Phänomen ist die Machtverschiebung [ 12 ]. Technologiegiganten wie Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Netflix und Google, aber auch Baidu, Ant, JD, Alibaba und Tencent setzen sich in vielen Belangen gegen sogenannte souveräne Staaten durch, gleich ob es um Steuern, Datenschutz oder Verbraucherschutz geht.…”

“…Ein noch viel zu wenig beachtetes und verstandenes Phänomen ist die Machtverschiebung [ 12 ]. Technologiegiganten wie Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Netflix und Google, aber auch Baidu, Ant, JD, Alibaba und Tencent setzen sich in vielen Belangen gegen sogenannte souveräne Staaten durch, gleich ob es um Steuern, Datenschutz oder Verbraucherschutz geht.…”