Digital Slavery: From Chinese Social Credit System to American Mass Surveillance

Transcript

[Music] and now we are going to have another speaker online and uh she's Ina vladimirova oeta with a very interesting topic of digital slavery from Chinese social credit system to American Mass surveillance welcome and prepare questions hello everyone just technical technical checkup everyone can hear and see me yeah can someone correspond perfect perfect well greetings everyone this is my great pleasure to greet every one of you all the way from Washington

DC well I Hoy to the Czech Republic and every one of you here sadly I couldn't join you all in person for this wonderful uh academic and Technical exchange however allow me to send my words of gratitude to Camila Tran for finding me through my public applications and research and for reaching me out with a very kind invitation to join here as a speaker as well as everyone who made this forum possible thank you for the opportunity to share the bits of pieces on my research and such a indeed critical topic of the present day which is our privacy and freedoms in the digital world this presentation combines ideas from several of my studies that I did

through my academic journey in the United uned States a little update I worked at my graduation ceremony just two weeks ago and received my BA in political science and economics I always remember to hold interest in exploring unconventional correlations of events and phenomena that happen within our communities countries as well as on the level of international politics looking at how technology and its Precision are advancing safeguarding personal information such as knowing where it goes where it's kept and who can access it becomes highly critical and fundamental in a sense how we as

Citizens citizens of the world interact with those who watch us from the other side of the monitor those who can make critical decisions and make critical decisions for the future of our Nations who decide our friendships and shape the world where our kids will be born today will look at digital slavery through the prism of Chinese social credit system and American Mass surveillance how private is our privacy we'll discuss the technology the mechanisms of implementations Ethics as well as the legislation to address this complex topic now before I begin here's the QR code that will get you to my published

research that I did back in 2018 so social credits system the biggest catch about social credit system is that it's not about financial system yes people certainly do compare to the credit score that you earned within a bank however a certain score that limits your freedom of travel access to health care and even the ability to send your child to a good school it easily stops being just about finances right the system of social credit is BU built on the model that tracks your activity and analyzes your behavior not only as a user within a specific app but also

outside of it this can rage from behaviors in public such as jaywalking smoking in the non-smoking areas or biking in the correct spot or even to interactions with people of lower ratings your purchasing habits can influence your scor based on what the local authorities determined a beneficial consumption pattern in turn participation in community services providing charity can boost up that social score however among many many implications that the system gives is the main one is the creation of social stratification and I promise we'll come back to it later in the presentation so sorry sorry Ina uh we

still see the first slide so like you need to probably change the picture so we follow you oh yes I was I was actually I was doing this uh and you couldn't see on your end yeah we still see the first one oh I'm I apologize greatly it's okay okay okay now how about now it's good now it's changed surance okay technical team come on sorry so the previous the previous slide on social credit uh the QR code would lead uh would lead you guys to the published uh paper that I did years ago when I first came to United States as a student that was this

slide now we're on the slide of surveillance impact so everyone can see just making sure as we go on all good perfect times times at technology have changed drastically since the time again I mentioned 2018 I first did this research on social credit system so integration of artificial intelligence facial recognition system emotion analysis body temperature monitoring presently China holds more than half of the world's Advanced surveillance cameras which means that St statistically it's one camera that oversees three

citizens the autonomy of private companies in China is increasingly at risk as the Chinese Communist Party reinforces The Establishment and affiliation of party within businesses on the right you can see interesting numbers that highlight politization of businesses which puts data privacy user privacy under big question data collection storage transfer it's a critical Universal concern as there's simply not enough cyber security protocols and the appropriate legislation to go about it the companies below represent Financial Services social media dating website bicycle rentals all in all information that is

collect collected from all the services holds a range wide enough to establish an entity Mighty than the traditional Ministry of internal affairs and imagine all this information is concentrated in the hands of government now we shift into the discussion integral to the fields of political science and political management the role of government it it weight and its influence on society this phrase has been attributed to Adam Smith and I feel great obligation to cited for all of you here every ship thinks that the shepherd is a genius and the dog the

protector of the flock even though the owner and the dog eat more sheep than the wolves do economics of slavery such was the title of my senior thesis that I presented at my University as previously you can scandy QR code to get to that publication with ENT research my goal was to build the historical outlook on the expanding power of government and with how slave labor was built historically to benefit the political class so when we get to the fundamentals of the social contract exclusively discussed in the enlightenment period

the word contract seems highly cont veral knowing what we know about cyber security and having what we have with the growing and expanding governments in place earlier I promised I promised all of you to revisit the matter of social stratification long before the Enlightenment thinkers like log and hubs there was a subtle but there was indeed an understanding that contract primarily benefited one party which wasn't the general public it wasn't people so how many of you actually get to read 70 Pages or more of terms and conditions when you download a new app or upgrade

the system I do hope however that you get to read the contract when you sign your rent but what about the terms and conditions of our digital activity our digital obligations expectations our digital traces why would signing this contract carry less of your consideration often times we're even forced to agree to terms to carry to to proceed to reading an article or accessing a certain website this is where it gets obvious that the contract needs to be substituted but something more versatile something that can be called consensus do you feel the difference

between the word contract and consensus with the increasingly digitized word as a world that we live in is ours much of the political and social history has become transparent and accessible I'm dropping another QR code here bear with me that will lead uh that will lead you guys to another research that I did on blockchain and versus the US Supreme Court where I discussed that historically the judges of the Court were appointed added subtracted and their number always vared throughout history to do what to serve and carry out the agenda of different presidential

administrations and those and those other the people who are whose role is to interpret the Constitution with impartial mind and what still appears to be a consequence the correct term to put here is Court backing is a big big um topic within the United States as I mentioned uh in the very beginning the social credit system is is not just about finances as it encompasses Much More Much broader phenomenon and banking in its traditional form has low chance of survival in this world of innovation and Henry Ford said that if people had

indeed understood our Banking and monetary system maybe the world would already start the revolution Guided by the IDE ideology of this forum ethereum and embracing innovation we as young researchers developers tech people we are working on Crafting a new world that will be consistent with the technology that keeps evolving certain systems laws mechanisms cultures Trends they do have a tendency to get old and inapplicable as they fail to correspond to the reality and the new needs of populations the new populations media ownership now as we transition

into the second part of this presentation let me cite you let me have the privilege of citing you the very first Amendment to the United States Constitution Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or the right of the people to peacefully assemble and to peti I the government for address of grievances let us focus on the freedom of the press the freedom of Journalism that is a sacramental piece to American System of governance besides the checks and balances of the government of the

three government branches there needs to be an independent entity that can balance out the government by asking critical questions and navigating the political narrative the complex Narrative of the present day now let me walk you through the evolution of media regulation and how it eventually impacted journalism the 1934 Communications act laid the foundation for for-profit broadcasting system with advertising money pouring in corporate networks pressured Congress to uphold profit as the basis for American Broadcasting fast forward to the 80s Reagan's deregulation policies to moved government controls

which led to the rise of media conglomerates that prioritized profit over journalistic Integrity another transformation is Gary web's dark Lance um which where he exposed the cia's involvement in drug trafficking to fund the Nicaraguan contracts um in an internal document that was that was only Declassified in 2014 the CIA described how the intend ended to discredit this journalist Gary Webb and his reputation and subsequently two bullets in his head were claimed to be suicide well and to something more recent just last year imagine five

newspaper companies closed every two weeks in the United States half of the American counties are now considered News desert as they either have no local news source or just one which is typically a weekly newspaper well today corporate influence on media is more pronounced than ever before with financial giants like Black Rock Vanguard owning significant portions of media landscape and this all all of this creates a conflict where the freedom of press lacks its true Freedom moving on in political topics we put forward an emphasis on studying

power in this case it is an exponentially Growing Power of governments within the discussion of our digital freedom and privacy it would be it would be a mistake to skip siding uh Snowden where every little thing that you do and every habit that this action of yours develops is tracked and kept in the hands of a system whose reach is unlimited and whose safeguards are not not from the first side such Concepts as the shift of meanings linguistic fallacy might come or look or us from dystopia Noels and it's only until we start

looking at the legislation the Patriot Act I will explain you what it is but you my dear audience will judge how patriotic it actually is the Patriot Act in United States was a big shift in Government powers enacted in response to the September 11th attack the ACT expanded their surveillance capabilities of the state allowing for greater monitoring of phone calls emails Financial transactions as well of the information that is gathered and bounced back for and forth amongst the intelligence agencies the Brad powers granted under the Patriot Act is mass

spying which ultimately undermines the Trust In The Once signed social contract I must warn you that out of 100 US senators there was only one only one Senator that voted against this act it's a Democrat senator from Wisconsin his name is Ron Russ pangle just one well in explaining here more the authorization for use of military force the So-Cal called a umfs expanded the government even more even more by allowing the executive branch which is the president to engage in military actions without the need for prior

Congressional approval historically the 2001 aumf that was also passed in response to 911 attacks it was followed by the 2002 aumf that authorized the military intervention in in Iraq this a FS two of them have been used to justify various military campaigns in regions many regions throughout many many years and uh often times they went beyond their original intent so I know we're limited on time which is like which is why I would like to leave my contact information here in

case you have a longer question I promise to answer in a timely manner to every one so and I would like to end my presentation with the following words to abandon facts is to abandon Freedom we live in a fragile world that needs our attention and Collective effort to maintain our liberties and protect our privacy it is crucial that we stay informed question the powers that govern us and actively participate in shaping the future that values truth dear audience thank you so much for your time and attention happy thank you um we still have time

for questions if there are any let's ask yep hi thank you for the presentation um the US is to put it bluntly going in a bad Direction and seems to be worse and worse has any anyone researched other countries that might be a safe heaven for people who want to use more privacy Technologies or you want to just be less observed and tracked so it's interesting and I I I just recently graduated with my political science and economics degree

so I would say a lot of things that are being studied especially when it's um when we get to the question of government power and political influence there's a there's a great tendency to look upon uh the role of the United States because essentially United States with all its power which is not just you know militaristic which is not just cultural there it's a big Power and it has influence across all branches of what whatever you can think about so United States is uh is setting Trends big trends on how I would say the Democratic world that holds on to this Constitution and in fact uh brilliant ideas that was

that were written in the Constitution by the founding fathers and interestingly enough with such a such an unfolding you know uh events in the digital world it's very interesting to see how this old world with great ideas of the Constitution of you know the principle of human dignity of privacy and you know essentially of establishing the government that is against tyrannical rule because this is how the United States got to become the United States essentially in it uh after its independence so uh looking at other countries where maybe in implementing

the system would be more efficient in terms of how private everything is the exchange of information and how people indeed have um this autonomy would not necessarily correspond to the bigger countries or would not correspond uh well to the country that is setting Global Trends the United States uh there is it's it's a very delicate question so and and after leaving in the United States for many years uh this country is um has holds a lot of bureaucratic processes so a lot of things that could be potentially established on the lower level in the level of smaller countries with their own inner dynamics that are

culturally unique that are unique in many other senses historical uh Financial financial integration uh it will of course be different so I hope that I I addressed your question uh nonetheless it's it it will live certainly live in very different different and interesting times it's definitely a fun time to be around these days thank you thank you some more questions in your personal and professional opinion considering with how things have been and for how long they have been do you see this ever changing Ever

Changing uh in the future in what way in the future in the future just even even even if we look at historical um Outlook of events a lot of things have changed uh one of the one of the it was the second research that I mentioned in this presentation economics of slavery even if we look at the subject of slavery certainly slavery in the current day is not what it used to be back uh back centuries centuries ago however slavery now exists in a different form and which is uh within

this presentation I described you a different form of slavery which is digital slavery so it is certainly Tendencies or their skeleton of such Tendencies they do stay in place however as our economies develop as our cultures get more integrated get um revolutionized people go and Conquer new lands people move people travel people learn new languages and uh you know get together to create something new which is what we're doing in this forum correct so certainly things are not um are not staying permanent however we can

see tendencies that can transcend time and this is our responsibility to adopt technology to serve us not via through tyrannical means but as something that can benefit us in the future collectively and can serve the cause of Human Rights human dignity and Liberation thank you thank you more questions yep yes hi now um uh I have a a remark really more than a question but um so first of all this this quote you have

about every sheep thinks the shepherd is a genius is probably not from uh Adam Smith um so the second thing is this quote that you have there by Henry Ford unfortunately it's also as you may know also used by lots of conspiracy theorists and mostly it it's not actually whatever the quote is it mostly shows that Henry Ford did not understand the financial system okay so you're addressing a very you know important question right you're working on important stuff you're a researcher so I think um you have to be careful to not you know open up yourself up for

criticism for little things like that right that's just a little remark I mean anyway what do you think yeah yeah thankk you I love remarks so uh in terms of the Adam Smith so even though we don't have direct quote direct access to many of his quotes they have been this this this specific quote has been attributed to his teachings he used to have students and this is something that we get well historically is being traced down and gets into history so I know exactly what you mean by uh this conspir and people who sort of challenge the

modern research phenomena however when I was writing um about getting back to this research on economics of slavery So within within the perception of this country of the United States it's um you know slavery as a subject matters political subject is considered um in a very different way so you travel elsewhere if you learn the history of for example um the Caribbean region or various European countries that were also um subject to a lot of practices you know of tyrannical role of

essentially slavery we can see that um slavery does not have a certain color it does not have religion it's in fact is very very Universal tool to gaining control and um they they red some uh some pieces of research online that say that you know someone denies numbers someone denies this but however as researchers as as people who you know sort of compare Global phenomenon we need to we need to see this big zoomed out um event EV so what actually happened what is something that this

Source can tell me that I can make sense out of and um back to the back to another quote of Henry Ford uh I mean United States was having what what it has um in with the with the head of uh the Federal Reserve saying yes we need to we need to increase the uh the interest rate keep increasing interest rate and um the oil prices for example a lot of things could be built very very differently and certainly the quality of life and the elevation of human capital can be considered through very very different economic means economic tools

that can be set in place to to essentially establish a lot of good things that would be uh that would benefit people however uh given given The Narrative of the political landscape very intensified political theater we need to understand that PRI priorities um is something that you know citizens in my opinion don't really have much control much power of in determining so this is my remark thank you thank you uh that's probably a wrap so let's give a round of applause to Ina and uh we'll continue soon thank you very much thank you so

much [Music]