Comment on Russia launches "social rating" platform to determine a person’s comparative “social status”
silkroadtraveler@lemmy.today 3 months agoI wouldn’t underestimate the engineering competence of Russians especially when it comes to autocratic surveillance tools. There are plenty of Russian-built tools and web apps that function quite well - Yandex, VK, etc. The west does not have a monopoly on innovation.
Yandex is a good example, VK - I’m not certain of that.
Anyway, what I meant is that such kind of social rating needs to source data from somewhere. That means integration with quite a lot of systems built for the Russian state, which often suck a lot. It’s normal that half the time remote payments for utilities don’t work, for example.
I mean, yeah, they can. But if it’s going to be some nation-wide system for the government, the bureaucracy will practically kill this.
Comparing run of the mill government services with something as advantageous as a social credit app is not apples to apples. It’s not like they assign utility administrators to work for GRU hacking units. The people that build this tool will be highly paid technical experts. And there is no shortage of them in Russia. It’s definitely not 100% but there’s a decent chance they can cobble together a working system that tracks social scores for the vast majority of Russian citizens.
Social scores would logically depend on the data sourced from things working as I described.
But you may be right, of course.
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.
How do you mean remote payments for utilities. Buying something in Russia from a foreign country or the other way around ? Or just remote payments through Russia ?
I meant - submitting water counters’ data and such via their website and paying there. It’s not about payments themselves.
nexusband@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Nope - but it does look like we have the “monopoly” of being able to call out bullshit openly and not fear falling out of a window. Or being stabbed.
KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
Oh that’s coming. Stay tuned.
5too@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Well, until the President decides otherwise, anyway.
nexusband@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Luckily “the West” isn’t just the U.S. - it’s also France, the U.K., Mexico and even Australia…
5too@lemmy.world 3 months ago
True! I’ve been too focused on our local politics lately!
silkroadtraveler@lemmy.today 3 months ago
That’s a monopoly I appreciate. Although it’s marginal depending on a number of factors.