---
title: "Here’s How to Check Your Totalitarian “Social Credit Score”"
description: "While the U.S. doesn't have a social credit score system like China, several shadowy companies are using private data to do something similar in the U.S."
date: "2019-11-04"
modified: "2019-11-04"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/how-check-american-social-credit-score"
categories:
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "big data"
  - "social credit"
  - "the digest"
---

# Here’s How to Check Your Totalitarian “Social Credit Score”

![While the U.S. doesn't have a social credit score system like China, several shadowy companies are using private data to do something similar in the U.S.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/how-see-american-social-credit-score.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Permanent Record

In China, a formalized social credit score can determine whether you're allowed to take out loans or even [use public transit](<https://futurism.com/china-social-credit-system-barred-traveling-2018>). The system is often held up as a particularly dystopian application of big data analytics — and now it seems as though a [similar thing is happening](<https://futurism.com/america-social-credit-system-china>) in the U.S.

It turns out that a number of companies are aggregating mind-boggling piles of financial records, internet activity, and other personal data, *[The New York Times ](<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/business/secret-consumer-score-access.html>)*[reports](<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/business/secret-consumer-score-access.html>) — and using it to determine petty metrics like how long companies will make people wait on hold or whether we're allowed to make returns at a store.

## Behind The Curtain

Some of these companies give people the opportunity to take a look at whatever records they have on them, like Sift, which had accumulated over 400 pages of notes on the *NYT*'s Kashmir Hill, ranging from Airbnb reviews to delivery orders.

Technically anyone can request their records by emailing [privacy@sift.com](<mailto:privacy@sift.com>) then filling out a [form](<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeGTJHX9edmQOD8Ez-1NgJP7cbikwLKyAgXl5TYDNAK4mZT9g/viewform>) online. But the *NYT* noted that some companies, like consumer-tracking database Kustomer, refused to share data while repeatedly saying it would soon.

## Secret Scores

These little-known companies aren't new, but they're only just getting attention for their unsettling data projects, which can have a major behind-the-scenes impact on people's lives.

Even now, companies like Sift might share the piles of records they've accumulated on you — but won't tell you how other companies are using it.

**READ MORE:** [I Got Access to My Secret Consumer Score. Now You Can Get Yours, Too.](<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/business/secret-consumer-score-access.html>) \[*The New York Times*\]

**More on social credit:** *[Report: America Has a Social Credit System Much Like China’s](<https://futurism.com/america-social-credit-system-china>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)