VOA慢速英语20060825a

ECONOMICS¹ REPORT - You've Got Trouble: America Online's Big Mistake With Search DataBy Sarah Randle

Broadcast: Friday, August 25, 2006

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.


America Online Logo



How much information can people learn about you by seeing what you look for on the Internet? Too much, say some people with Internet service from America Online.

These people should know. AOL put the Internet search records of more than six hundred and fifty thousand people in a public area on part of its Web site.

The records included every search these users made between March and May of this year.

The company says the release was an accident. It says the records were meant for researchers. The purpose was to help them study how people use the Internet so search tools can be improved.

To protect privacy², AOL used numbers instead of names to identify the users. But people who saw the records quickly recognized that some users could be identified through the details of their searches.

The New York Times decided³ to prove it. The newspaper was able to identify one of the users as Thelma Arnold of Georgia. The sixty-two-year-old woman was surprised to get a telephone call from the reporter who found her. But she agreed to a story about her searches.

Many of them, for example, involved medical conditions. Someone might think she very sick. In fact, in many cases, Thelma Arnold was searching for information to help friends.

Still, the records from AOL show that Internet searches can tell a lot about what people are thinking. That includes things they might never want others to know they are thinking.

The records could be highly useful to marketers. But some researchers say they will not use them because the information is too personal.

People became angry when they learned that their searches had been made public. AOL took the information off its Web site. The company apologized and called the release a screw-up.

Some people, however, had already copied the data before AOL removed it.

The World Privacy Forum⁴ and the Electronic Frontier Foundation want the Federal Trade Commission⁵ to punish AOL. Both groups say the company violated⁶ its privacy agreement with its millions of customers.

AOL has promised to make changes in the company to help keep records private. The incident has cost three people their jobs, including the researcher who posted the information.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Sarah Randle. You can read and listen to archives of our reports at www.unsv.com. I'm Faith Lapidus.

1 economics   

n.经济学，经济情况

参考例句：

• He is studying economics,which subject is very important.他正在学习经济学，该学科是很重要的。
• One can't separate politics from economics.不能把政治与经济割裂开来。

2 privacy   

n.私人权利，个人自由，隐私权

参考例句：

• In such matters,privacy is impossible.在这类事情中，保密是不可能的。
• She wept in the privacy of her own room.她在自己房内暗暗落泪。

3 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。

4 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

5 commission   

n.委托，授权，委员会，拥金，回扣，委任状

参考例句：

• The salesman can get commission on everything he sells.这个售货员能得到所售每件货物的佣金。
• The commission is made up of five people,including two women.委员会由五人组成，其中包括两名妇女。

6 violated   

亵渎( violate的过去式和过去分词 )； 违反； 侵犯； 强奸

参考例句：

• Note that thick, strong angles of tibia are not violated. 注意肥厚、结实的胫骨成角部分未受损坏。
• The soldiers violated the church by using it as a stable. 士兵们把教堂当马厩，亵渎了教堂。