CHINESE SOCIAL CREDIT SYSTEM: A STUDY ON TECHNOLOGY, ETHICS, AND SOCIAL SURVEILLANCE

Abstract

Since the beginning of the past decade, the Chinese government has been implementing an Social Credit System aimed at fostering trust among citizens and businesses through scores that reward or penalize specific behaviors. This initiative relies on advanced social surveillance technologies, such as facial recognition, big data analysis, and human tracking, which enable the real-time monitoring and evaluation of individuals' and organizations' actions. Despite its stated objectives, the system has raised ethical, legal, and political concerns. This study critically examines three primary issues: (i) conflicts of interest arising from the involvement of private companies with access to sensitive data; (ii) potential violations of civil rights, particularly the right to privacy; and (iii) the political use of the system as a state surveillance tool, reinforcing authoritarian practices. The research, exploratory in nature and based on the deductive method, uses secondary data obtained through a bibliographic review in the main research databases and relevant journals, carrying out a qualitative analysis. As a result, it is found that the social credit system may represent an ideological control of the state in relation to the population, confirming the discussions about biopower, possible violation of civil rights and social segregation and, thus, by classifying individuals into groups, the non-existence of democracy, since credits can punish critical opinions.