Welcome to China, where all your personal data is now reportedly up for grabs.

For a low price, anyone in the country could see every hotel room you’d ever checked into, every flight you’d taken, all your real estate holdings and the intricacies of your financial situation.

Likewise you could gain access to the private documents of anyone you know, from key politicians to your best friends and colleagues.

In China, this bizarre “Big Brother” concept is fast becoming a reality.

According to Chinese newspaper the Southern Metropolis Daily, the private information of many citizens can be freely purchased by strangers for just 700 yuan, or $AU138.

The newspaper conducted an investigation to reveal just how easily a random citizen’s private details could be conveniently purchased in the digital era.

Using nothing more than his personal ID card number, the newspaper managed to find significant information about a colleague, right down to the apartments he’d rented and the internet cafes he had visited.

They could even pinpoint the colleague’s exact location using his smartphone, and view detailed information about bank transactions, driving penalties and train journeys.

In other words, every citizen can be Big Brother, provided they own a smartphone and are willing to pay a small fee.

The data is available on hundreds of tracking services through China’s internet sites.

In an analysis of the report for SupChina, David Bandurski, a researcher at the University of Hong Kong’s China Media Project, said it is either being sold by the police and authorities, or outsiders who are hacking into national databases.

Imagine if everyone around you could access all your private data.Source:Supplied

The bizarre report comes as the Chinese government continues to develop its “social credit system”, in which it monitors each individual citizen and collates information about their day-to-day lives.

The Communist Party of China hopes the ambitious plan will create a culture of “sincerity”, where citizens will be kept in line.

The whole thing is designed to assess each individual person’s trustworthiness in the eyes of the government, and your actions have the power to dramatically alter the rest of your life.

Each person is given a numerical “score” that could determine whether they qualify for financial loans down to getting a nicer room in a hotel or a better table at a restaurant.

It can even affect how many dates you pull, because the information is publicly available, and your social circle can influence your number.

The Chinese government is fast turning its country into a “Big Brother” state.Source:News Limited

Last year, the Chinese government released a revised plan detailing how the elaborate system would work.

A translation published by Oxford University China researcher Rogier Creemers points out that a person’s “score” would be publicly available and integral to their place in society.

It states: “Eliminate credit information obstacles between all localities, all departments as well as state organs and people’s organisations, social organisations, enterprises and undertaking work units, and move forward credit information interconnection, exchange and sharing according to the law.”

It also warns that any person or company who is deemed “untrustworthy” could see sanctions imposed on them: “All localities and all departments must carry out their proper functions, mutually co-ordinate, shape joint forces, and build credit supervision, warning and punishment systems where if trust is broken in one place, restrictions are imposed everywhere.”

What your friends say and do can also influence your public score — a feature that will create social pressure among citizens.

It stresses the importance of this being a communal system, saying “all levels’ governments must play a leading role” in helping to “stimulate the common participation and joint governance of the entire society, and realise the effective convergence of government leadership and joint social action.”

The country’s state news agency Xinhua reported on the social credit system two years ago, saying it would focus on four key areas: administrative affairs, commercial activities, social behaviour, and the judicial system.

The system would be accompanied by a related reward and punishment mechanism, with individual identity card numbers or organisation numbers to allow for the sharing of information.

While China’s government has sought to keep tabs on its citizens for decades, this would be the first of its kind of include technologies such as big data, cloud computing and the mobile internet.

The Chinese government has ramped up the monitoring of its citizens.Source:AFP

China Daily reported the rating method consisted of a numerical score scale between 350 and 950 points, with a higher score making it easier to borrow money.

For example, people with 600 points or more were permitted to take out a loan of less than 5,000 yuan ($A972) when shopping on Alibaba’s online marketplace.

Those with more than 666 points could take out a cash loan of up to 50,000 yuan ($A9719).

Creemers told Fast Company this is nothing new.

“They’ve been working on the credit system for the financial industry for a while now,” he said. “But, in recent years, the idea started growing that if you’re going to assess people’s financial status, you should equally be able to do that with other modes of trustworthiness.”

He points out that — while it comes with certain efficiencies — it’s ultimately just another means by which the government can directly control its people.

“On the one hand, this credit system is the institution of commonsensical rules for market behaviour. On the other hand, it’s a control tool.

“The Party sets out a way of behaving, then it makes that way of behaviour rational. You take away the ability for people to decide on what they think is good and you take away their choice of living a different lifestyle.”

In other words, the system could improve how workers and citizens function in their day-to-day lives.

But this comes at the expense of personal freedom. Is that really worth it?