cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/536301

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The Russia’s State Social University (RSSU) has launched a “social rating” platform that claims to build a person’s “social portrait” with possible applications in future government policies.

Named “We,” the platform promises to determine a user’s comparative “social status” based on a survey that includes questions about income, family status, benefits, creditworthiness, criminal record, lifestyle and state awards, among others.

“The social rating figures don’t affect [a person’s] life, the availability of services or the career trajectory in any way,” RSSU said on the platform’s website. “But who knows what these figures will mean for you in the future?”

Observers on social media compared the platform’s name “We” to the highly influential 1921 dystopian novel of the same name by Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin. [The novel “We” describes a world of harmony and conformity within a united totalitarian state. It inspired British author George Orwell to write his own novel, “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, which was published in 1949.]

  • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
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    6 months ago

    Social scores would logically depend on the data sourced from things working as I described.

    But you may be right, of course.

    • silkroadtraveler
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      6 months ago

      Ah I see what you mean(t). You would have to have working systems with clean-enough data in the first place to integrate with in order to develop a system like this. Not just the expertise to develop it.