電子郵件很私密？大錯特錯

⊙ By Andy Yen

翻譯：思葦

電子郵件很私密？大錯特錯

⊙ By Andy Yen

翻譯：思葦

Think Your Email’s Private? Think Again

美式發音 適合精讀

語速：165詞/分鐘

談到隱私，經常有人這么說：“不就是一封郵件/一條微博/一條微信么，我又不是什么名人，不礙事的。”真是這樣的嗎？一起來聽聽在CERN工作的科學家Andy Yen怎樣以我們習以為常的電子郵件為出發點，深入淺出地探討網絡隱私問題及其影響……

Scientists at1)CERN created the World Wide Web. Since then, the Internet has transformed the way we communicate, the way we do business, and even the way we live. Today, the average person has an2)astounding amount of personal information online, and we add to this online information every single time we3)post on Facebook, each time we search on Google, and each time we send an email.

Now, many of us probably think, “Well, one email…there’s nothing in there, right?”But if you consider a year’s worth of emails, or maybe even a lifetime of email,4)collectively, this tells a lot. It tells who we have been, who we have met, and in many ways, even what we’re thinking about. And the more scary part about this is our data now lasts forever, so your data can and will outlive you. What has happened is that we’ve largely lost control over our data and also our privacy.

If we really think about it, we see that the business model of the Internet today really isn’t5)compatible for privacy. Just take a look at some of the biggest names on the web, and you see that advertising plays a huge role. And to6)optimize the ads that are shown to us, companies have to know everything about us. They need to know where we live, how old we are, what we like, what we don’t like, and anything else they can get their hands on. And if you think about it, the best way to get this information is really just7)invade our privacy.

So what do we have to do to solve this problem? Well, first of all, we need to support a different business model for the Internet, one that does not rely entirely on advertisements for8)revenue and for growth. We actually need to build a new Internet where our privacy and our ability to control our data is9)first and foremost. But even more importantly, we have to build an Internet where privacy is no longer just an option, but is also the10)default.

And today, there are dozens of projects from all around the world who are workingtogether to improve our privacy. These projects protect things from our chat to voice communications, also our file11)storage, our online search, our online12)browsing, and many other things.

This really matters, because13)ultimately, privacy depends on each and every one of us. And we have to protect it now, because online data is more than just a collection of ones and zeros. It’s actually a lot more than that. It’s our lives, our personal stories, our friends, our families, and in many ways, also our hopes and our14)aspirations.

1) CERN 歐洲核子研究中心，CERN為其前身機構的法語名稱縮略，一直沿用至今。

2) astounding [?'sta?nd??] adj. 令人震驚的

3) post [p??st] v. 公布，在社交媒體上發布信息

4) collectively [k?'iekt?vi?] adv. 集合地，共同地

5) compatible [k?m'p?t?b(?)i] adj. 合得來的，相容的

6) optimize ['?pt?ma?z] v. 優化，使最優化

7) invade [?n've?d] v. 侵入，侵犯

8) revenue ['rev?nju?] n. 收入，收益

9) frst and foremost 首先，首要的

10) default [d?'f??it] n. 系統默認值

11) storage ['st??r?d?] n. 存儲

12) browsing ['bra?z??] n. 瀏覽，瀏覽服務

13) ultimately ['?it?m?ti?] adv. 最后，最終，根本

14) aspiration [??sp?'re??(?)n] n. 渴望，抱負

見招拆招

這是一篇非常典型的議論文，思路清晰，條理分明：作者首先帶出話題，以電子郵件這么常見的事物作為切入點，引出自己的觀點并進行闡述，分析造成這種現象的原因，提出解決方案，最后升華主題。一篇好的議論文就應該這樣，不廢話，不空話，不套話，踏踏實實地將問題講清楚。大家不妨仔細研讀這篇文章，還可以找一個感興趣的題目進行仿寫練習哦。

參考譯文

歐洲核子研究中心的科學家們創造了萬維網。從那以后，互聯網改變了我們的溝通方式、貿易方式，甚至生活方式。如今，一個普通人留在網上的個人信息量多得驚人，而且每當我們在“臉譜”上發布內容，每當我們用谷歌搜索東西，每當我們發送電子郵件，我們其實就是在為網上信息添磚加瓦。

我們當中很多人也許會這么想：“呃，一封電子郵件……里面也沒什么內容吧？”但是如果你考慮下整整一年的郵件量，或者人一生中總共發了多少郵件，這就能透露出很多信息：我們的過去，我們見過什么人——在許多方面，郵件甚至能透露出我們在想什么。更可怕的是，我們的資料現在都能永久留存，所以你的資料能夠——而且肯定會比你活得久。現在的情況就是，我們基本上無法控制這種資料外泄和隱私問題。

如果仔細想想，大家不難發現今天的互聯網商業模式其實與個人隱私是水火不容的。只要看看一些最有名的網絡品牌，你就會發現廣告在其中占據著重要地位。而為了優化廣告投放的效果，這些公司必須對我們了如指掌。他們需要知道我們住在哪里，多大歲數，喜歡什么，不喜歡什么，以及他們能獲得的所有其他信息。仔細想來，要想獲得這些信息，最有效的途徑便是直接侵犯我們的隱私。

那我們要怎么做才能解決這個問題呢？首先，我們要支持一種全新的互聯網商業模式，一種不需要完全依靠廣告來賺錢和發展的新模式。我們確實需要建立一個將保護隱私和管理資料當作頭等大事的新型互聯網。但更加重要的是，我們需要構建一個全新的網絡，讓隱私不再只是一個選項，而是一個系統默認值。

今天，全世界有幾十個研究項目在共同努力，旨在改善我們的隱私狀況。這些項目能保護我們的聊天內容和電話通訊，還有文件存儲、上網搜索、瀏覽服務，以及多種其他信息。

這是非常重要的事情，因為歸根結底，保護隱私要靠我們每一個人。我們現在就要將隱私保護起來，因為網上數據并不僅僅是1和0的集合，它其實有著更為豐富的內涵。它是我們的人生，是我們親身經歷的故事，關系到我們的親朋好友——從很多方面來看，它還承載著我們的希望與抱負。