中国科技公司信用评分系统面临监管博弈

China’s central bank is reining in efforts by Tencent and Alibaba to create controversial “social credit” scores from data on citizens’ purchases and social behaviour.

中国央行开始打压腾讯(Tencent)和阿里巴巴(Alibaba)根据公民购买和社会行为的数据创建有争议的“社会信用”评分的努力。

The companies have been working on pilot programmes to give consumers credit scores based in part on their online activities. Their aim is to fill a gap in China’s financial system, which lacks institutional records of individuals’ creditworthiness. But the methods have raised concerns that Big Brother is intruding in private lives.

这些公司近期在开展试点计划，在一定程度上根据消费者的网上活动对他们给出信用评分。它们的目标是填补中国金融体系的一个空白，即缺乏个人信用的机构记录。但所用的方法令人担心“老大哥”在侵犯私人生活。

The pilot has turned into a tug of war with the central bank, which is developing its own scoring system, amid worries that the technology-to-finance conglomerates could use the lure of better scores to sell their financial products.

试点计划已演变为科技公司与中国央行的角力，后者正开发自己的信用评分系统。目前人们担心，经营范围涵盖科技和金融的综合集团可能会利用更高信用评分的吸引力，来销售自己的金融产品。

Tencent was last week forced to pull a nationwide trial system less than a day after launch, under pressure from the People’s Bank of China. 上周，迫于中国央行的压力，腾讯在启动不到一天后叫停了其信用分的全国公测。

“Regulators certainly want to make this a feasible model first, and then put it to broader application and establish industry standards,” said Dong Yizhi, lawyer at Yida Law Firm in Shanghai.

上海亿达律师事务所(Yida Law Firm)律师Dong Yizhi表示：“监管机构肯定希望先让这成为可行的模式，然后投入更广泛的应用，并确立行业标准。”

A PBoC official said Tencent’s beta system was taken down because it was seen as jumping the gun on the government’s system, which will be licensed in a few months. Beijing plans to roll out a nationwide system by 2020.

中国央行的一位官员说，腾讯的公测系统之所以被叫停，是因为它被认为想抢在政府系统之前推出，后者将在几个月内获得牌照。北京方面计划到2020年推行全国性的信用评分系统。

The PBoC is concerned the credit scores built by Tencent and Alibaba will be used as marketing tools to sell products, including risky investments, he added. The were also fears about the security of consumer data.

他补充称，中国央行担心，腾讯和阿里巴巴建立的信用评分体系将被用作营销工具，销售包括高风险投资在内的产品。此外还有对消费者数据安全性的担忧。

Sesame Credit, from Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial, has rolled out its system faster than Tencent, but still faces resistance, said Mr Dong. “Sesame Credit is definitely having rough times too,” he said. Ant Financial declined to comment.

Dong Yizhi表示，阿里巴巴旗下金融机构蚂蚁金服(Ant Financial)的信用评分系统芝麻信用(Sesame Credit)比腾讯更快地推出了评级系统，但仍然面临阻力。他说：“芝麻信用肯定也在经历艰难时期。”蚂蚁金服拒绝置评。

The pilots have raised concerns about intrusive surveillance in a country where there are few protections on individual privacy. Some metrics were irrelevant but others were more sinister, such as efforts to rate “honesty” or “trustworthiness” by linking credit scores to friends’ social media posts.

在一个几乎没有个人隐私保护的国家，这些试点项目让人们担忧侵入式监视。有些指标是不相关的，但其他一些指标比较险恶，比如试图通过将信用评分与朋友的社交媒体帖子相关联来评估“诚实”或“可信度”。