Like the usual credit score in the UK and US which is used to control a person's financial ambitions, the social credit system is China's idea of keeping its citizens behaviours in society in check — complete with punishments and rewards. The social scoring system was first announced in 2014, based on the idea that "keeping trust is glorious and breaking trust is disgraceful," and "once untrustworthy, always restricted".

Before then, there was the blacklist, which has a list of untrustworthy people.

China aims to make the scoring system compulsory for its 1.4 billion citizens by 2020, when the program will be fully operational nationwide. For now, it is already being piloted for millions of people across the country already.

For example, Liu Hu, a journalist who was ordered by a court to apologise for a series of tweets he wrote and was then told his apology was insincere, has been put on the blacklist. When Liu recently tried to book a flight, he was told he was banned from flying because he was on the list of untrustworthy people.

He said: “I can’t buy property. My child can’t go to a private school. You feel you’re being controlled by the list all the time.”

Just like in the Nosedive episode of hit tv show Black Mirror, for your social score to be low, you must have committed a series of grievances against the government such as fraud, bad driving, smoking in non-smoking zones, tax evasion buying too many video games and posting fake news online. The penalties for a low social score include but are not limited to:

1. Banning you from flying or getting the train.

2. Throttling your Internet speeds.

3. Banning you — or your kids — from the best schools.

4. Stopping you getting the best jobs.

5. Keeping you out of the best hotels

6. Getting your dog taken away

7. Being publicly named as a bad citizen.

On the other hand, your social score could be increased by abiding by all laws, community service, buying Chinese-made products, etc. Rewards for citizens with high social score include: increased matches on dating websites,discounts on energy bills, access to rent things without deposits, and get better interest rates at banks.

This real life Black Mirror episode, or rather, a manifestation of the Big Brother society predicted in George Orwell's book 1985, is made possible by the flow of big data and the growing cameras and other surveillance devices installed all around the country.

What a time to be alive!