Classroom Companion: Business

20.4.2 
 Social Control
China’s social credit system is a governmental application of big data. The Chinese 
government gathers information about its inhabitants using a vast number of sur-
veillance cameras, information retrieved from online Internet activity, and finan-
cial transactions. The data is used to calculate a credit score ranging from 0 to 1000 
for every Chinese individual. This score is used to determine whether an individual 
will get access to particular services, worthy of getting loans, or enjoy particular 
benefits. It is also used for punishment such as exclusion from high prestige work, 
only getting slow internet access, exclusion from certain schools, travel restrictions, 
or included in public blacklists. The system is designed to promote “good” behav-
ior in the population.
20.4 · Abuse of Big Data

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20.4.3 
 Tracking People
Several companies have developed camera surveillance systems for real-time face 
recognition (See for example the homepage of Innovatrics). The technology is 
common in China where surveillance cameras on streets, railway stations, airports, 
shops, and many other sites are used together with face recognition algorithms to 
identify people (A lawsuit against face scans in China could have big consequences, 
2019
). This is part of the social credit system described above.
Several mobile apps include GPS location data in the messages they send to the 
server. To meet regulatory requirements, these data are not coupled to the identity 
of the mobile user and are therefore claimed to be anonymized. Tamoco is a 
UK-based company buying location information from app owners and reselling it 
to customers (See the official homepage of Tamoco). Coca Cola, Uber, and Nestlé 
are among their customers. This allows the customer to follow the movements of a