美国国家公共电台 NPR Facebook Says Cambridge Analytica May Have Obtained Data On As Many As 87M Users

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

All right. To another story now, a story involving the number 87 million. Facebook says that's the number of people whose information may have been improperly¹ shared with the political data mining firm Cambridge Analytica. This disclosure comes on the same day that lawmakers announced that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has agreed to testify before Congress. Well, here to discuss the most recent developments is NPR tech reporter Aarti Shahani. Hey, Aarti.

AARTI SHAHANI, BYLINE²: Hi.

KELLY: So Mark Zuckerberg today held a conference call with journalists. I want to start by just listening in for a moment to what he had to say.

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MARK ZUCKERBERG: I think the reality here is that we need to take a broader view of our responsibility rather than just the legal responsibility. So, you know, we're focused on doing the right thing and making sure that people's information is protected. We're doing the investigations³. We're locking down the platform, et cetera.

KELLY: Aarti, locking down the platform, doing the right thing - do we know what he means?

SHAHANI: Well, he means a lot of things. First of all, he's got a short-term and a longer-term view on what he's doing. He said that Facebook is one year into a massive three-year shift. So we're going to keep hearing about changes. They're going to last beyond one news cycle. There was a lot of questioning his leadership on the call. It was pretty blunt. You know, one question that came up was, has the board discussed you, Mark Zuckerberg, stepping down as chairman? He said, uncomfortably, not that I'm aware of.

Another question was, are you the best person to head Facebook? And what he said there - he was like, yes, I am, and when you're building something like Facebook, there are going to be things that you mess up, and you learn from your mistakes. He also said that so far no one has been fired to his knowledge around the Cambridge Analytica scandal that broke most recently.

KELLY: Let me drill down on that number I just put out there - 87 million people, the number that the company now says of people whose data was compromised in this Cambridge Analytica scandal. They'd originally said it was 50 million people - already pretty huge. We learned this from this blog post that came out today. Do we know how Facebook has arrived at this new, even more staggering number?

SHAHANI: Yeah. They are continuing to investigate. And now what they're saying about this new even more staggering number is that it's the upper limit. So they're like, we believe that this is the highest it's going to get, i.e. don't expect next week that number to go up.

KELLY: OK.

SHAHANI: And the blog posts that you just mentioned, you know, that came out by Facebook's chief technology officer basically outlining steps that Facebook is going to take to guard user data more aggressively. OK. One ongoing⁴ issue is that Facebook is one massive platform, but on top of that, you've got other apps, other, what are called, third-party developers that for years have looked to Facebook to be a data feeder to them, to give them information about users, and everyone's kind of in the data sharing together.

The blog post announced that they're going to stop certain kinds of data sharing. So, for example, if I'm advertising⁵ an event, if I'm organizing an event on Facebook, it used to be that the people who are going to join my event would be visible to third-party developers, but Facebook is changing that so that now the guest list is guarded. The comments for the event are guarded as one step. And really, you know, what you're seeing is Facebook sending out the message incrementally⁶ that, hey, we know that our borders were porous⁷, but we're building a wall.

KELLY: And, Aarti, quickly, we mentioned that Mark Zuckerberg will appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He's going to be testifying next Wednesday. What are you watching for?

SHAHANI: Yeah. You know, the thing is that there's a real conversation here to be had about regulation. So far, Zuckerberg admits that Facebook has been lax with handling user data. In part, that's his fault, but in part, you know, you've got to look at what are the laws, what are the regulations making him do it. If a mistake costs you nothing versus⁸ a mistake costs you a billion dollars, well, what do you more - when are you more likely to make a mistake? So I'm looking to see what are the regulatory conversations that really take shape here.

KELLY: That's NPR's Aarti Shahani. Thanks so much.

SHAHANI: Thank you.

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1 improperly   

不正确地，不适当地

参考例句：

• Of course it was acting improperly. 这样做就是不对嘛！
• He is trying to improperly influence a witness. 他在试图误导证人。

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 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

4 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

5 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

6 incrementally   

adv.逐渐地

参考例句：

• Incrementally update the shared dimensions used in this cube. 增量更新此多维数据集中使用的共享维度。 来自互联网
• Grand goals are inspiring, but be sure to approach them incrementally. 辉煌的目标令人鼓舞，但一定要逐步实现。 来自互联网

7 porous   

adj.可渗透的，多孔的

参考例句：

• He added sand to the soil to make it more porous.他往土里掺沙子以提高渗水性能。
• The shell has to be slightly porous to enable oxygen to pass in.外壳不得不有些细小的孔以便能使氧气通过。

8 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。