Frictionless pandemic surveillance and social credit systems

Abstract

China's pandemic surveillance apparatus is considered to be particularly intrusive. The surveillance systems were developed with the aid of Chinese tech companies and operate as extensions of the preestablished Social Credit System, which seeks to collect and exploit big data and influence citizen behavior via rewards and punishments. Yet the pandemic surveillance policies unfolding in the United States and other democracies could lead to similar harms as those posed by the China Social Credit System. Market demands for pandemic surveillance and technological responses to that demand removed tensions between big tech and government and the checks and balances necessary for effective oversight. These systems, purportedly implemented for a limited purpose to address a public health emergency, are likely to result in longer-term surveillance consequences and warping of democratic norms. The consequences of a soft social credit system in the United States are rendered more visible through a comparative perspective that examines the discomforting similarities between the philosophical impact of frictionless pandemic surveillance in the United States and China.