[00:00.00]如果您也喜欢 恒星英语学习网 www.hxen.com 请与您的朋友分享This is the VOA Special English Technology Report. [00:04.99]Google is preparing for changes [00:07.77]in its privacy policy beginning March first. [00:12.15]The company says it plans [00:14.87]to replace more than sixty separate policies [00:18.77]for different products with one main policy. [00:23.67]Privacy activists criticized last month's announcement. [00:28.39]They are concerned that the new policy [00:31.22]will make it easier to track the activities of users [00:35.76]across Google's many products -- from Gmail to YouTube. [00:40.95]Marc Rotenberg heads the Electronic Privacy [00:44.96]Information Center in Washington. [00:47.62]He says Google's aim [00:50.61]is to create a single unified profile of its users. [00:54.91]MARC ROTENBERG: "We believe that not only [00:56.72]is that a threat to privacy, [00:59.01]we actually believe it is illegal, [01:01.07]because last year Google entered into an agreement [01:04.70]with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission [01:06.67]in which they said they would not engage [01:08.86]in that kind of data sharing [01:10.65]without the explicit permission of their users." [01:14.16]Google says its new policy will make it simpler for users [01:19.09]to share information across services [01:22.56]like Google Search, Gmail and Google Calendar. [01:27.51]And it says the new policy [01:30.27]will help personalize each user's experience. [01:34.83]Over time, it says, users can expect [01:38.81]to see better search results, [01:41.04]fewer unwanted advertisements [01:44.00]and more content targeted to their interests. [01:48.34]But Marc Rotenberg says in return, [01:51.82]people who choose to use Google will lose control [01:56.31]over the information they share. [01:59.28]MARC ROTENBERG: "The type of information [02:00.50]you might provide for an e-mail service, [02:03.26]for example, such as your address book, [02:06.60]which contains private information, [02:08.62]is different from the type of information [02:11.32]that you might provide for a social network service [02:14.66]where people purposely make information publicly [02:18.15]available to their friends." [02:19.60]Mr. Rotenberg says these two kinds of services [02:23.53]should be kept separate. [02:25.49]MARC ROTENBERG: "By trying to combine these two services, [02:28.27]in our view, Google is actually undermining [02:32.61]a very well established expectation of privacy, [02:37.06]particularly for popular Internet services [02:39.47]like electronic mail." [02:40.75]Critics also see a bigger problem with Google's new policy. [02:45.63]The plan would not give users a choice [02:48.75]to "opt-out" of the data sharing. [02:51.92]MARC ROTENBERG: "In our view, [02:52.82]if people want to make their personal information available, [02:55.60]they certainly should have the right to do that. [02:57.42]What we're objecting to is the effort by the company [03:01.76]to take away from the users that choice [03:04.99]that they should have. That just seems unfair." [03:08.76]Google says it will not be collecting [03:11.79]any more data than it does now. [03:14.61]And it says users will still be able [03:18.29]to control many privacy settings. [03:20.64]For example, they can disable their search history [03:25.49]and set Gmail chat to "off the record." [03:29.49]European Union officials have asked the company [03:33.43]to delay the new policy to make sure [03:36.41]it would not violate any E.U. data protection laws. [03:41.41]Marc Rotenberg thinks the Federal Trade Commission [03:45.21]in Washington might also try to block the new policy. [03:49.99]And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, [03:55.33]written by June Simms. [03:57.39]I'm Steve Ember.如果您也喜欢 恒星英语学习网 www.hxen.com 请与您的朋友分享