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Date May 2022 Marks available 3 Reference code 22M.1.SL.TZ0.4
Level SL Paper 1 Time zone no time zone
Command term Explain Question number 4 Adapted from N/A

Question

China's social credit scheme


The Chinese government is proposing a social credit scheme that will reward its citizens with points for what it considers to be good behaviour. This can be done by monitoring citizens’ social media connections, purchasing history and location data.

CCTV cameras are widely used in China, and there are concerns that facial recognition technology that uses artificial intelligence (AI) is already being utilized by the government to detect “good” and “bad” behaviours of its citizens. The facial recognition system requires high-resolution images*.


* high-resolution images: images that are of a quality that allows them to be used for printing. Usually this means they are 300 pixels per inch.

Identify two types of image file.

[2]
a.i.

Describe the difference between monitoring and surveillance.

[2]
a.ii.

Describe the difference between identification and authentication.

[2]
a.iii.

Other governments are considering setting up similar systems that will use facial recognition to gather information about the behaviour of its citizens.

Explain why the developers of the new facial recognition system would need both primary and secondary data collection.

[3]
b.i.

Explain why using high-resolution images could be a challenge to the implementation of a facial recognition system.

[3]
b.ii.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a government using a facial recognition system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor the behaviour of its citizens.

[8]
c.

Markscheme

Answers may include:

 

Award [1] for identifying each file type up to [2].

a.i.

Answers may include:

 

Award [1] for a definition of monitoring.
Award [1] for a definition of surveillance.

a.ii.

Answers may include:

 

Award [1] for a definition of identification.
Award [1] for a definition of authentication.

a.iii.

Answers may include:

 

Award [1] for identifying a reason why the developers of the new facial recognition system would need both primary and secondary data collection and [1] for each subsequent development of that reason, up to [3].

b.i.

Answers may include:

 

Award [1] for identifying a reason why having images with a higher resolution could be a challenge to the implementation of a facial recognition system and [1] for each subsequent development of that reason up to [2].

b.ii.

Answers may include:

Advantages:


Disadvantages:
·     

 

In part (c) of this question it is expected there will be a balance between the terminology related to digital systems and the terminology related to social and ethical impacts.

Keywords: government, data, algorithm, accuracy, reliability, model, monitoring, surveillance, power, systems, ethics, values, trust, accountability, cost, feasibility


Refer to SL/HL paper 1, part c markbands when awarding marks. These can be found under the "Your tests" tab > supplemental materials > Digital society markbands and guidance document
.

c.

Examiners report

[N/A]
a.i.
[N/A]
a.ii.
[N/A]
a.iii.
[N/A]
b.i.
[N/A]
b.ii.
[N/A]
c.

Syllabus sections

Topic 3: Content » 3.1 Data
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