Western cultures do a variant of the same thing. Your prospective employer will not only look stuff up about you online (over much of which you have no control)

Western cultures do a variant of the same thing. Your prospective employer will not only look stuff up about you online (over much of which you have no control), they will also run a pretty deep background check, and if that doesn’t work out in your favor your offer can be withdrawn. God forbid if you had any run-ins with the law, you’re screwed for the rest of your life. Bad credit rating could disqualify you from a lot of jobs as well. The major difference is that this is merely enabled by the government, not run by it.