If you’re worried that Western countries are rapidly establishing a Chinese-style Social Credit System, why, you’re just a nutbag, right-wing conspiracy theorist, and probably racist. Don’t believe your lyin’ eyes that that’s exactly what we’re seeing unfold right in front of us: the ABC are here to wag the finger and tell you just how stupid and far-right you really are. And they’d know: they’re the ABC. They’re just better than you.
Millions of Australians are already using a digital identity through myGovID, which links data across several government services including Medicare and Centrelink.
In October last year, the federal government released draft legislation to expand the system to more state and territory services and the private sector.
But while there are legitimate privacy concerns about the voluntary scheme, several political candidates have been spreading fear about the scheme in a bid for votes, linking it to a globalist plot or a ploy to introduce a Chinese-style social credit system […]
Claims that the digital identity bill is being pushed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) so global elites will have control over individual data have also been shared on social media by candidates from the United Australia Party and The Great Australian Party in recent weeks.
I mean, it’s not as if the WEF is openly saying that they want a global digital identity system… Well, ok, so they are — but they’re not advocating a social credit system, surely? Oh, wait…
In fact, sift through all the sneering and name-calling, and even the ABC and its pet “experts” are conceding that there really is something to be worried about.
The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) says the bill “provides assurance to consumers that their privacy and security is protected”, however, there are still questions about how the system will function and how individual data will be protected.
RMIT researcher Kelsie Nabben is concerned about the security of the data.
“Collecting large amounts of personal information creates a potentially valuable target,” she said.
“By putting the population’s data into a centralised database, it does create what we call a honey pot, which is just a target for hackers.”
Executive Director at Digital Rights Watch James Clark agreed there were privacy concerns with the proposed legislation. “We know that identity information is really valuable,” he said.
“If it’s misused, or if there’s a security breach, people can’t simply change their face or their fingerprint, like they could with a password.”
Wait, our faces? Our fingerprints? They’re admitting that the system will utilise facial recognition and fingerprint technology and store that data on Australian citizens? Tell us again, how it’s not like China’s system. For that matter, tell us why the sort of data that used to be only kept on criminals may now be kept on all Australians.
“It does come in the context of a digital climate where digital technology is increasingly being used to track and surveil people,” he said, “so I can see how that has caused a kind of concern and leads to conspiratorial thinking.
“But certainly these conspiracy theories are often a distraction from real privacy and security concerns.”
ABC Australia
A “conspiracy theory” stops being a “theory” when it becomes reality. The BBC reports that police in Britain are already using social credit style systems which record everything from “Asian heritage” to “heavy TV viewers” and “overcrowded flats” to assess offenders. The New Economics Foundation details how social credit systems are being used elsewhere in Britain. Life Insurance companies in the US are using social media posts to work out what size premiums to charge.
An Italian city has become one of the first Western jurisdictions to openly implement a social credit system. Canadians got a foretaste of social credit in action when the Trudeau government used data gained from a criminal hacker to suspend the bank accounts of people who had supported the trucker protests.
Venezuelan government technical advisor Anthony Daquin was another one of those “conspiracy theorists” who raised concerns about a social credit system in that country, after taking part in a delegation that inspected China’s system in Shenzhen. For expressing his concerns, Daquin was detained, beaten and extorted by intelligence agents, and forced to flee the country. Now, Venezuela is introducing the ominously named “Fatherland Card”, manufactured by a Chinese firm. The card is increasingly linked by the government to subsidized food, health, and other social programs most Venezuelans rely on to survive.
But, hey, if you’re worried about that happening here, you’re just “Sinophobic”. Ask the ABC, and they’ll tell you.
