Some users of Yahoo Japan Corp. are rising up against Japan¡¯s biggest web portal after the rollout of a new rating system that¡¯s being compared with a social-scoring initiative in China.
The 48 million people with a Yahoo! Japan ID will have to opt out within a privacy settings webpage if they don¡¯t want to be rated. The score is based on a variety of factors and is calculated based on inputs such as payment history, shopping reviews, whether a user canceled bookings and the amount of identifiable personal information. Unless users opt out, their ratings may be accessible to freelance jobs site Crowdworks Inc., Yahoo¡¯s bike-sharing service and other businesses.
Makoto Niida, a longtime Yahoo user, opted out of the rating system when he learned about it. ¡°It¡¯s a big deal that the service was enabled by default,¡± Niida said. ¡°The way they created services that benefit businesses without clear explanations to their users reminds me of China¡¯s surveillance society.¡±
Yahoo¡¯s new credit-score program follows efforts by Mizuho Financial Group Inc., NTT Docomo Inc. and other companies to use algorithms to assign ratings to consumers. Japan doesn¡¯t have a system similar to FICO in the U.S., so businesses in the world¡¯s third-largest economy have come up with their own solutions to determine financial trustworthiness. Yahoo¡¯s program shares some elements with China¡¯s Sesame Credit, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., according to Masahiko Shoji, a professor at Musashi University specializing in policy and governance issues.
¡°When China¡¯s scoring system started, people said it was scary, but now they¡¯re starting to realize that it¡¯s being turned into a business in Japan,¡± Shoji said, adding that Yahoo makes it difficult for users to find where to opt out on its website.
Yahoo Japan officially launches the scoring service on July 1. A pilot program with 13 companies provided high-scoring users with special offers and matched preferred freelancers to companies, Yahoo said in a statement on June 3.
Yahoo Japan, partly owned by SoftBank Group Corp., said users consented to the program when they first registered their IDs, eliminating the need for opt-ins. Yahoo said it uses the score within its services, but won¡¯t share personal information without additional user consent.
¡°We are aware of the opinions on social media,¡± the company said in an emailed statement. ¡°We regret causing any concerns, and will work to improve our communication around this issue.¡±
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