VOA慢速英语2021 互联网"Cookies"的终结能使用户拥有更多隐私吗?（在线收听）

Google has announced plans to stop supporting tools designed to follow internet users across the web in order to target them with specific advertising.

谷歌公司宣布，其计划停止支持旨为投放针对性广告而通过网络跟踪互联网用户的工具。

Such tools are known as cookies. These are small data files that are stored on an internet user's computer as they browse different websites. This data can be read by web servers to identify web browsing behaviors of the user.

这种工具被称为cookies。在互联网用户浏览不同网站时，这些小型数据文件会存储在他们的计算机上。这些数据可以被网络服务器读取，以识别用户的网络浏览行为。

Cookies make it possible for users to avoid having to repeatedly enter their user names and passwords to get access to websites they use often. But the use of cookies raises major privacy concerns, with critics saying a user's browsing history should not be recorded just to target them with ads.

Cookies使用户在访问经常使用的网站时，不用重复输入用户名和密码。但cookies的使用引起了人们对隐私的严重担忧，批评人士表示，用户的浏览历史记录不应该仅用来投放针对性广告。

Google announced in 2020 it had decided "to remove support for third-party cookies" from its Chrome browser. Chrome has a world market share of about 60 percent. Other browsers, such as Mozilla's Firefox and Apple's Safari, have already blocked third-party cookies.

谷歌在2020年宣布决定取消谷歌浏览器“对第三方cookies的支持”。谷歌浏览器的全球市场份额约为60%。Mozilla火狐和苹果Safari等其他浏览器，已经屏蔽了第三方cookie。

In another recent online announcement, Google repeated this promise and said it will not build or use new tools to replace current cookie technology.

谷歌在最近发表的另一项网上声明中重申了这一承诺，并表示不会构建或使用新工具来取代当前的cookie技术。

In explaining its decision, Google pointed to a Pew Research study that found 72 percent of Americans feel that almost all of what they do online or on a cellphone is tracked by advertisers. Google's decision to remove third-party cookies also followed increasing efforts to protect privacy in Europe and the United States.

谷歌在解释这一决定时指出，皮尤研究所的一项研究发现，72%的美国人认为自已在网上或手机上所做的几乎所有事情都被广告商跟踪。谷歌决定删除第三方cookies的同时，欧洲和美国也加大了保护隐私的力度。

Google said the current internet advertising model needs to change to answer "the growing concerns people have about their privacy and how their personal identity is being used." Otherwise, it added, "we risk the future of the free and open web."

谷歌表示，目前的互联网广告模式需要改变，以回答“人们对自己隐私以及个人身份如何被使用的日益关注。”谷歌补充表示，否则，“我们将冒着自由开放网络未来的风险。”

Questions raised on Google's plan

谷歌的计划引发质疑

In January, however, Google's plan was called into question by British competition regulators. The country's Competition and Markets Authority announced it had launched an investigation into whether the changes would give Google an unfair advantage over competitors in internet advertising.

然而，今年1月，谷歌的计划遭到英国竞争监管机构的质疑。英国竞争与市场管理局宣布，其已展开调查，以查明这些改变是否会让谷歌在互联网广告领域获得相对于竞争对手的不公平优势。

The agency said it received objections to the plan from Marketers for an Open Web, a coalition of technology and publishing companies. The group accuses Google of "abusing its dominant position" by attempting to create a new advertising model.

该机构表示，他们收到了“开放网络营销者”组织对该计划的反对意见，这个组织是由技术和出版公司组成的联盟。该组织指责谷歌“滥用其主导地位”，因为其试图创造一种新的广告模式。

In its latest statement, Google said it has been working with others in the industry on the "Privacy Sandbox" project, which aims to create a new system to please both advertisers and publishers. Google also repeated that it does not plan to replace third-party cookies with new "user level identifiers."

谷歌在最新声明中表示，其一直在与业内其他公司合作“隐私沙盒”计划，该计划旨在创建令广告商和出版商都满意的新系统。谷歌还重申，其不打算用新的“用户级标识符”取代第三方cookies。

"We will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will we use them in our products," the company said.

该公司表示，“我们不会在个人浏览网页时建立替代标识符来跟踪他们，也不会在我们的产品中使用这些标识符。”

What Google is proposing is to group web users with similar interests together to gather information for advertising purposes. Such a system would "hide individuals within large [groups] of people" and prevent individual tracking, the company said.

谷歌提出的方案是将兴趣相似的网络用户聚集在一起，收集信息用于广告目的。该公司表示，这种系统将“把个人隐藏在一大群人中”，并防止个人追踪。

Businesses could, for example, target ads to a group of people who show interest in buying a car, rather than using cookies that tracked individual users across different car-buying websites.

例如，企业可以将广告定位于对购车感兴趣的一群人，而不是使用cookies跟踪不同购车网站的个别用户。

James Rosewell heads Marketers for an Open Web. He told The Associated Press that even though the changes are aimed at improving user privacy, Google will still be able to track users of its own services.

詹姆斯·罗斯威尔是“开放网络营销者”组织的负责人。他对美联社表示，尽管这些变化旨在改善用户隐私，但谷歌仍将能够追踪其服务的用户。

"What they're not saying is that ‘people are logged into our products all the time'" and therefore are giving permission to be tracked when they use Search, Maps, Gmail or YouTube, Rosewell said. "What they're not saying is, ‘we're going to stop all of that'."

罗斯威尔表示，“他们没有说‘人们一直登录我们的产品’”，因此他们允许在自已使用搜索功能、地图、Gmail或YouTube时被跟踪。“他们没有说，‘我们要阻止这一切’。”

Words in This Story

browse – v. to look at information on the internet

access – n. the right or ability to approach, enter, or use

track – v. to follow and watch the progress of a process or project

regulator – n. a part of the government that controls a public activity by making and enforcing rules

advantage – n. something (such as a good position or condition) that helps to make someone or something better or more likely to succeed

dominant – adj. the main or most important

alternate – adj. taking the place of something else

log in – v. to connect a computer to a system of computers by usually entering a name and password