PBS高端访谈:美国参议院投票废除互联网隐私条例

 　　HARI SREENIVASAN, PBS NEWSHOUR WEEKEND ANCHOR: Last week, the Senate voted to overturn Internet privacy rules that were designed to prevent Internet providers like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T from sharing your browsing¹ data, history, financial, health, communication and location information without your explicit² permission. Providers are looking to sell that data to advertisers. The House has yet to weigh in, but consumer groups oppose the move citing privacy concerns.

　　For some insight, I'm joined now by "Recode" reporter Tony Romm, who's been following the story.

　　First, thanks for joining us.

　　And so, the Senate's passed it. That means the House is going to consider it next. I kind of gave a rough explanation, but do us a favor. And what are these rules? What's at stake?

　　TONY ROMM, RECODE REPORTER: Sure and thanks for having me.

　　These privacy rules are about as good as dead. You know, you have to rewind the clock a bit to the last administration to understand how we got to where we are now. The FCC under chairman Tom Wheeler, an appointee from President Barack Obama, put in place rules the require Internet providers like Comcast and Verizon and AT&T to ask your permission, to ask customers permission before they share their personal information with third parties, advertisers included.

　　Democrats³ at the time felt that Internet service providers just had too great a look into your private life and could do myriad⁴ things with that information possibly against your will. But Republicans didn't like it. Republicans at the time voted against those rules. They found them burdensome. They felt the FCC was reaching far beyond its mandate⁵ under law.

　　And what we're seeing now is an evolution of that. Republicans on Capitol Hill voted as you said in the Senate, just last week, 50 to 48, largely along party lines, to gut⁶ those rules. The House is expected to vote this week and you can pretty much expect them to do te same as the Senate, setting us this up to head to the trash heap.

　　美国参议院投票废除互联网隐私条例

　　SREENIVASAN: OK. So, these rules were designed — I mean, one of the concerns that the industry has and they push back, and say, listen, it's not fair for me Comcast or AT&T, not to able to do the things that Facebook and Google already do, which is sell that user data.

　　ROMM: Absolutely, that's the argument that those Internet providers made to the FCC and they made in Congress with a very expensive lobbying campaign, saying that they just felt they were being subjected to stronger rules than a Google or a Facebook or a Microsoft, and what-have-you. That being said, Internet providers have a much different look at you and your personal information than some of these tech companies. If you don't like Google, for example, you can just go use Bing.

　　But if, you know, Comcast is your Internet provider and they're able to see the totality of your web history, they can get different insights from you, greater insights from you that they can then sell to advertisers. That's why you had consumer groups, whether it was the ACLU and folks on Capitol Hill, mostly Democrats, who said this was just too much, and it was time for privacy rules. Unfortunately, in their case, these rules aren't staying on the books.

　　SREENIVASAN: You know, I remember searching for a piece of luggage once, and then all a sudden, I saw ads from luggage for a week and a half, right?

　　ROMM: Yes.

　　SREENIVASAN: Everywhere I went, every website. So, one of the things that the industry always says, well, this is just to try to tailor it so that you find more relevant advertising⁷.

　　But what other uses are there for this information besides that luggage example?

　　ROMM: Sure, not even just relevant information, in terms of the ads you're seeing. It's also to pay for the services that most customers don't want to pay for. You know, they don't want to pay for a service like a Facebook or a Twitter, not that those companies are looking necessarily to charge you. But the reason so much of the Internet is free is because you are paying for it in a different way and that's in the form of your personal information.

　　But, really, we're just at the beginning of this. Wireless⁸ companies, for example, are looking for new and creative ways to advertise and to monetize users' information to help their balance sheet. That's why Verizon went out and purchased Yahoo. Now, that's a deal that's kind of in a bit of trouble right now given the cyber attack on Yahoo recently, and all the reports of it, rather.

　　But, you know, that was one example of the kinds of things that these companies would like to do. They would like to get more information from you and to begin to serve you more and different kinds of advertising, whether it's relevant, based on your interest, or something else entirely⁹.

　　SREENIVASAN: All right. Tony Romm of "Recode" — thanks so much for joining us.

　　ROMM: Thanks for having me.

1 browsing   

v.吃草( browse的现在分词 )；随意翻阅；（在商店里）随便看看；（在计算机上）浏览信息

参考例句：

• He sits browsing over[through] a book. 他坐着翻阅书籍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Cattle is browsing in the field. 牛正在田里吃草。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 explicit   

adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的

参考例句：

• She was quite explicit about why she left.她对自己离去的原因直言不讳。
• He avoids the explicit answer to us.他避免给我们明确的回答。

3 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 myriad   

adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量

参考例句：

• They offered no solution for all our myriad problems.对于我们数不清的问题他们束手无策。
• I had three weeks to make a myriad of arrangements.我花了三个星期做大量准备工作。

5 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

6 gut   

n.[pl.]胆量；内脏；adj.本能的；vt.取出内脏

参考例句：

• It is not always necessary to gut the fish prior to freezing.冷冻鱼之前并不总是需要先把内脏掏空。
• My immediate gut feeling was to refuse.我本能的直接反应是拒绝。

7 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。

8 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

9 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。