In George Orwell's classic novel 1984, telescreens allow the "Thought Police" to monitor "unapproved thoughts".
Apparently that dystopian vision is being realized in China - where choices made via cellphones (ubiquitous mobile telescreens?) are being used to compile dossiers that could alert police to suspicious activity - even before a crime has been committed.
For example, an overuse of electronic payments for bus trips in a single day could suggest criminal intent to the police - who might proactively identify an (innocent) person as a potential pickpocket.
As described in an Oct. 25th, 2016 post to marketing-interactive, the founder of China's biggest e-commerce site has come out in favor of this method for targeting potential criminals, terrorists and subversives within society - using the data that his apps collect to tip off the the authorities when app-users might be engaged in anti-social behavior:
"Chinese billionaire Jack Ma has weighed in on the matter and urged Chinese officials to use big data to stop would-be criminals. He announced his ideas [Oct. 21st, 2016] in a televised speech to about 1.5 million domestic security and legal officials. The speech was also published on the Chinese Communist Party’s Commission for Political and Legal Affairs’ WeChat account on Saturday, according to Bloomberg. “It’s normal for one person to buy a high-pressure cooker, a timer or even some gunpowder and steel ball bearings [separately], but it wouldn’t be normal if one person bought all that stuff together at once,” he said in the speech, explaining how big data could help link tip-off authorities to potential bomb makers.""
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