美国国家公共电台 NPR Why The Tech Industry Wants Federal Control Over Data Privacy Laws

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

2018 has been a big year for supporters of data privacy. Europe enacted¹ a tough law in May, and then California passed comprehensive legislation in June. And tech companies are feeling the heat, so they are working behind the scenes on a federal privacy law. But they are not just trying to influence it. They're actually starting to write it. NPR's Dina Temple-Raston has the story.

DINA TEMPLE-RASTON, BYLINE²: Facebook is still assessing the fallout from the latest epic³ hack⁴ in which at least 50 million user accounts were compromised. We heard about it because in order to comply with Europe's new data privacy law, the company has to make hacks⁵ public within 72 hours of discovering them. A California privacy law, if it's enacted as written, would go even further and allow consumers to sue and potentially collect enormous damages for exactly this kind of data breach⁶. Ernesto Falcon⁷ is with the digital advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

ERNESTO FALCON: They don't want to entertain the possibility that they would be liable to individuals for doing some sort of harm from all the data that they collect.

TEMPLE-RASTON: Early this summer, a who's who in tech attended a high-level private meeting in San Francisco organized by the Information Technology Industry Council. According to two people with knowledge of the meeting, it was there that Facebook's top lobbyist, Joel Kaplan, warned the executives about the threat the California privacy law posed to all of them. If the California law spread to other states, he said, it would present an even bigger problem than Europe's privacy law. So companies have decided⁸ to weigh in before new laws start coming in from all fronts. Again, privacy advocate Falcon.

FALCON: You have just this year a data broker⁹ law from Vermont. And then dating back even further, the state of Illinois has a biometric law that Facebook has opposed and has been trying to amend¹⁰.

TEMPLE-RASTON: The warning at the San Francisco meeting sparked an industry-wide effort to not just get behind federal privacy legislation but to actually write it. And while there's no one document that lays out their proposal yet, according to two people familiar with the process, the working drafts so far include two things, and the first, a pre-emption clause that would essentially¹¹ override¹² any privacy laws the states might pass, and the second, an agreement that enforcement of the law be left to the Federal Trade Commission. Ariel Fox Johnson of the advocacy group Common Sense Media says that while the FTC's a watchdog, it's not a very aggressive one.

ARIEL FOX JOHNSON: So I don't know what the FTC can do besides, like, put out guides or try to go after people for violating statements that they've made in their privacy policies.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JOHN THUNE: Good morning. A decade from now, we may look back and view this past year as a watershed¹³ with respect to the issue of consumer data privacy.

TEMPLE-RASTON: Late last month, officials from Apple, Amazon, AT&T and Twitter testified before the Senate commerce committee about privacy and the need for a new federal law.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JERRY MORAN: A yes or no question for each of you - would your company support federal legislation to pre-empt inconsistent state privacy laws?

TEMPLE-RASTON: And all the executives said they would.

(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)

LEN CALI: Yes, Senator. In...

ANDREW DEVORE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yes, Senator.

DAMIEN KIERAN: Yes, Senator, we would support...

TEMPLE-RASTON: Tech companies are working the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue as well. Google CEO Sundar Pichai was at the White House just recently, and Trump¹⁴ economic adviser¹⁵ Larry Kudlow announced last week that tech executives would be back for a big meeting later in the month.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

LARRY KUDLOW: We're going to have a little conference. The president will preside over it. We will have the big Internet companies, the big social media companies.

TEMPLE-RASTON: A reporter at the White House asked Kudlow if the invitation list would include big tech players like Facebook, Google and Twitter. Kudlow nodded and said, that's our hope. Dina Temple-Raston, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF WHYSP X PLAYER DAVE'S "REVIVAL")

1 enacted   

制定（法律），通过（法案）( enact的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• legislation enacted by parliament 由议会通过的法律
• Outside in the little lobby another scene was begin enacted. 外面的小休息室里又是另一番景象。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

4 hack   

n.劈，砍，出租马车；v.劈，砍，干咳

参考例句：

• He made a hack at the log.他朝圆木上砍了一下。
• Early settlers had to hack out a clearing in the forest where they could grow crops.早期移民不得不在森林里劈出空地种庄稼。

5 hacks   

黑客

参考例句：

• But there are hacks who take advantage of people like Teddy. 但有些无赖会占类似泰迪的人的便宜。 来自电影对白
• I want those two hacks back here, right now. 我要那两个雇工回到这儿，现在就回。 来自互联网

6 breach   

n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破

参考例句：

• We won't have any breach of discipline.我们不允许任何破坏纪律的现象。
• He was sued for breach of contract.他因不履行合同而被起诉。

7 falcon   

n.隼，猎鹰

参考例句：

• The falcon was twice his size with pouted feathers.鹰张开羽毛比两只鹰还大。
• The boys went hunting with their falcon.男孩子们带着猎鹰出去打猎了。

8 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

9 broker   

n.中间人，经纪人；v.作为中间人来安排

参考例句：

• He baited the broker by promises of higher commissions.他答应给更高的佣金来引诱那位经纪人。
• I'm a real estate broker.我是不动产经纪人。

10 amend   

vt.修改，修订，改进；n.[pl.]赔罪，赔偿

参考例句：

• The teacher advised him to amend his way of living.老师劝他改变生活方式。
• You must amend your pronunciation.你必须改正你的发音。

11 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

12 override   

vt.不顾，不理睬，否决；压倒，优先于

参考例句：

• The welfare of a child should always override the wishes of its parents.孩子的幸福安康应该永远比父母的愿望来得更重要。
• I'm applying in advance for the authority to override him.我提前申请当局对他进行否决。

13 watershed   

n.转折点，分水岭，分界线

参考例句：

• Our marriage was at a watershed.我们的婚姻到了一个转折关头。
• It forms the watershed between the two rivers.它成了两条河流的分水岭。

14 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

15 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。