Social Credit - 1984 comes 2020.

[Cunt]

Am I paranoid?

There was a product being sold, called 'off-pocket', which was a physical wallet to contain your phone, which also happened to be a Faraday Cage...

I wonder why it never took off...?.

Not paranoid, but I'd rather not say what I think you are.

As for the Faraday cage, would it stop your phone from receiving call signals?

To my understanding, a Faraday Cage blocks all radio signals

[pErvinalia]

Yeah would have to, otherwise it wouldn't stop an electronic eavesdropper. I've seen lots of people carrying metal RFID blocking wallets for credit cards.

My waistband travel wallet has a Faraday cage.

[Brian Peacock]

You need a Faraday cage for your Faraday cage these days.

[Svartalf]

and don't forget the foil hat, your brains is never too safe.

[Cunt]

Someone I know purchased a device which stops radio in an area. They told me it was illegal to own, but I wonder...

If you built your house, incorporating Faraday Cages all over, would it be illegal? What if you did it in a movie theatre?

I sometimes recommend a meeting room, which has as one of its primary features, no cell, wifi or other communication infrastructure. A phone in a nearby building is the best you could hope for.

[Svartalf]

if it's a jammer, they can be put to all manners of illegal uses, like preventing policemen from communicating with each other...

I'd never live in a faraday cage house, I need my radio too much... but I don't think it would be illegal, if only because no one has even thought of legislating about that.

[Cunt]

if it's a jammer, they can be put to all manners of illegal uses, like preventing policemen from communicating with each other...

I'd never live in a faraday cage house, I need my radio too much... but I don't think it would be illegal, if only because no one has even thought of legislating about that.

What about a restaurant or theater which designs to block radio? I wonder...my guess is that (in US and Canada) it would be unlawful without posting some sort of notice, but it may be as you say...maybe no-one has thought of legislating about it yet.

[laklak]

It's illegal in the U.S. to use cell phone jammers, but not illegal to build a Faraday cage. I'd post a notice just to cover my ass.

[Forty Two]

China is doing this shit. Don't be fooled that they are something they would rather we didn't think they are. http://technode.com/2017/08/23/chinas-s ... y-culture/

China's Social Credit System: AI-driven panopticon or fragmented foundation for a sincerity culture?

China’s Social Credit System, a government initiative which aims to assign a “social credit” rating to every citizen based on their financial behavior, personal information, and online activity, has earned a bad reputation abroad, including comparisons to an episode of “Black Mirror.” According to critics, the data-based, AI-driven system is more suited for comprehensive social control than keeping tabs on individuals’ financial state like credit score rankings devised in the West.

The trouble with most of this characterization is that it fails to recognize just how fragmented digital credit score-keeping is in China: it is not a single system, but many.

“I think the biggest misconception about the Social Credit System is that it is this evenly implemented all-seeing central bureaucratic surveillance apparatus,” Shazeda Ahmed, a Berkeley Ph.D. student researching the topic, told TechNode.

Social credit systems are currently being trialed by several provinces and cities, with Shanghai being one of the more famous ones with its “Sincere Shanghai” app. Each area decides its own rules for score keeping.

The ultimate goal is to lay out foundations for an encompassing Social Credit System by 2020 which will integrate not only individual, but also government, legal, and enterprise scoring. The system aims to compensate for underdeveloped credit scoring, but it also aspires to establish a “sincerity culture” by addressing rampant fraud, corruption, and mistrust in the country. And unlike traditional credit scoring which was established by financial agencies and institutions, a significant part of China’s Social Credit System is being built with technology.

Alibaba and Tencent—The social credit vanguard

After the Chinese State Council laid out an outline for building a Social Credit System in 2014, China’s central bank authorized eight Chinese tech companies, including Alibaba and Tencent, to conduct social credit pilot testing. According to Pennsylvania State University Ph.D. candidate Wang Keren, China’s tech giants were the vanguard in building “social trust” by developing e-commerce and online payments rating systems.

“The real drivers of this social credit reform are corporate actors—most notably this emergent generation Chinese ‘new-industrialists’ such as Jack Ma [founder and chairman of Alibaba] and Ma Huateng [founder and chairman of Tencent],” Wang told Technode.

Sesame Credit, run by Alibaba’s Ant Financial, is the now biggest social credit pilot built on the company’s huge trove of information on consumers. The platform, which has seen massive growth in recent years, provides credit information on individuals, as well as enterprises.

Alibaba has been promoting its Sesame Credit by offering users with good scores discounts on air tickets and hotels, deposit waivers on bike and car rentals, and even fast-tracked visas from countries such as Singapore and Luxembourg. The service is also being used as an authentication method for users of the Chinese version of Airbnb and dating site Baihe.

Another way to enslave the people. They'll lure everyone in with discounts and gifts, and then once you're in you have to behave so as to keep a good score. It's one thing to have a "credit score" that keeps track of your missed payments and defaults and such, but to have them rating your "social" credit score....ugh... this cannot end well...

[laklak]

It's for the "greater good". Fuck me I hate that phrase, because the great are the ones defining the good.

[Cunt]

Having worked with people who have 'paid their debt to society', I think it might doom a lot of people to a non-tech life. Cash, under the counter economy. Like libertarians, I guess.

[Svartalf]

Well, I'm not a convict and I still am totally cashbound... might be interesting to stay under the radar.

[Cunt]

It's preferable, for sure. Trouble is, I allowed myself to get a bank account about 15 years ago, and one gets used to the easy life.

[Svartalf]

Heck, I'd lick the judge off if she would give me back access to my bank account.

[Cunt]

I was without a bank account by choice. Sorry to hear you have other reasons. (or so it seems)