2015年经济学人 谷歌和欧盟就“被遗忘权”达成一致

Google and the EU

谷歌向欧盟低头

On being forgotten

"今夜将我我遗忘"

The right to be forgotten sounds attractive. But it creates more problems than it solves.

这个可以申请被谷歌“遗忘”的权利现如今看来十分具有吸引力。但是这却使得其解决的问题难以覆盖更多的新问题。

MAX MOSLEY enjoyed sexual practices which many might find odd. But that was his business, so when in 2008 a now-defunct British tabloid¹ wrongly dubbed² him a participant in a “sick Nazi³ orgy”, he sued it for breaching⁴ his privacy and won. The allegations, however, remain on the internet. If you type in “Max Mosley”, Google helpfully tries to complete the search: the first four options are “video”, “case”, “pictures” and “scandal”. He—and many others who feel their lives are tainted⁵ by the smears⁶ and irrelevancies which search engines link to their names—want redress⁷.

马科斯·莫斯利对性惯行十分陶醉，而这却会成为人们眼中的怪异举止和癖好。但是这是他个人私事，因此在2008年，一个现已停止经营的英国小报错误授予其“病态纳粹狂欢者”的“荣誉”称号，对此他提出起诉，一纸将该报刊告上法庭，宣称其侵犯了自己的个人隐私，并最终获得胜诉。然而，这一事件的指控，在互联网上依然得以保留。如果你轻触鼠标，键入“马科斯·莫斯利”，谷歌会有效地弹出所有关于马科斯的相关搜索：最前的四个搜索结果就是“视频”、“案件”、“艳照”以及“绯闻”。马科斯以及和他一样倍感自己生活被一些将其名字与名誉污点以及无关事宜相捆绑的搜索引擎给抹黑了—他们需要匡正。

Many European politicians are sympathetic to this. Countries such as France and Britain have long allowed the erasure⁸ of criminal records once convictions are spent. The European Parliament has backed a “right to be forgotten”, though to become law it would need the approval of all the European Union's 28 member states. Mr Mosley has won the first round of a legal battle in Germany to block the images appearing on Google searches there.

很多欧洲政客对于这一点也深表赞同。诸如法国和英国这些欧洲国家有很长一段历史时期允许一旦判决罪被定夺，犯罪记录被删除。欧洲委员已经开始重新审视“公民‘被遗忘'的权利”，尽管要成为法律文书仍然需要得到所有欧盟28个成员国的共同认可。莫斯利已经在德国的合法战争中赢得了第一轮的胜利，屏蔽了出现在谷歌的搜索结果上的相关照片。

Now the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the EU's highest court, has boosted this cause in a landmark⁹ case (see article). A Spanish lawyer, Mario Costeja González, sued Google because its search results linked his name to a newspaper article from 1998 about a now-resolved lawsuit¹⁰. The court ruled that Google was a “data controller” under the 19-year-old European law on data protection, which gives individuals strong rights over data that others hold on them. It said Google could be required not to display links to information that is “inadequate, irrelevant¹¹...or excessive”, given the purpose for which they are processed, and the time elapsed. Individuals will be able to appeal to their national data watchdogs if they are turned down.

现在欧洲法院，即欧洲最高法院已经在努力促成此案例作为划时代的案例。一个西班牙的律师，马里奥科特加冈萨雷斯，因谷歌搜索结果将其姓名与一报纸1998年报道的一起现今已经结案的诉讼案件的文章链接在一起，而起诉了谷歌。法庭根据欧洲的一项数据保护法律判定谷歌的行为属于“数据控制”，该法律已实行19年之久，规定个人用户们享有对于别人持有关于个人数据的极大掌控权利。法院裁决谷歌应该被要求不再将其链接信息展示出来，比如那些“不充足、无关紧要或是过度夸大”的信息，只用给用户们希望获得的信息即可，并且时间也会使人们淡忘掉这一切。个人用户将会向他们国家数据监测者提起申诉，以查看是否这些内容已被关掉。

The court's desire to protect victims of misunderstanding and malice¹² is understandable. But a right to be forgotten would be hard to implement¹³. Even if Google is made to censor¹⁴ its search results in Europe, in America the First Amendment's free-speech provision usually trumps¹⁵ privacy concerns. With modest technical know-how¹⁶, European internet users will be able to make American-style searches. Europe will hardly want to build a Chinese-style firewall to prevent that.

法院期望能够保护那些被大众误解和仇恨的受害者的这一愿望是可以理解的。但被遗忘的权利将很难实现。即使谷歌在欧洲、在美国被审查其搜索结果，宪法第一修正案的自由言论的规定通常胜过隐私问题。仅仅需要使用谦和的技术诀窍，欧洲的互联网用户将能成为美式的自由网页搜索者。欧洲将很难想建立起一个中国式的防火墙，以防止这一问题的产生。

And even if it were practicable to force companies to erase¹⁷ the past, it would do more harm than good. It would hamper¹⁸ everyone interested in finding out inconvenient¹⁹ truths about those who would like their past covered up. The ECJ ruling makes allowance for a public-interest defence, but it will mostly make commercial sense for Google and other search engines to take down material as soon as someone complains, rather than to weigh the merits of each case.

而且，即使迫使企业抹去过往历史的这一做法是可行的，将会造成弊大于利。它会妨碍每个人去查明他们所热衷寻求的不易真相，而这一真相是部分人希望掩盖的关于自己的过往。欧洲法院的裁决考虑到公众利益的捍卫和保护，但其主要将会使得具有商业意识的谷歌和其他搜索引擎一旦出现有人抱怨的情况，就撤销相关信息，而不是权衡每种情况下的利弊。

Watch out for silent encroachments

留心无声的侵犯

The right to be forgotten would also undermine the internet's great strength. The internet is, in effect, a library of unimaginable size—full, as all libraries are, of news, gossip, archive material and other stuff which may to varying degrees be irrelevant, wrong or mad. It has made the best and worst of such information more freely available than ever before. Search engines should be like library catalogues—comprehensive and neutral, and without fear or favour of what the contents may reveal, or how they may be used. It should be up to individuals, not governments, to distinguish what is right or wrong, useful or immaterial. People should be wary²⁰ of ceding²¹ the power to make that judgment²², even to a court that thinks hard about it and backs the underdog. As James Madison said, “I believe there are more instances of the abridgment²³ of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”

被遗忘的权利也将破坏互联网的强大力量。互联网，实际上是难以想象的大规模图书库，正如图书馆一样，其中库含了几乎所有的内容，包括新闻、八卦、档案材料，并可能与其他内容在不同程度上是不相干的、错误的或者疯狂。它使这些无论最佳还是最糟糕的信息，比以往任何时候更可自由查看。搜索引擎应该像图书馆目录一样——全面、中立，而不用担心或是偏爱可能会透露的内容，或者是它们该如何被使用。它应该是由个人而不是政府来决定，要分清哪些是对还是错，有用或是不重要的信息。人们应该警惕割让作出这样的判断的权力，甚至是对于法院都认为很难对此作出判断或是支持劣势者。正如詹姆斯·麦迪逊说，“我相信仍存在很多当权者逐步无声地侵犯民众自由的例子，这些例子比暴力和突然的强取豪夺更为猖獗”。译者：肖登怡

1 tabloid   

adj.轰动性的，庸俗的；n.小报，文摘

参考例句：

• He launched into a verbal assault on tabloid journalism.他口头对小报新闻进行了抨击。
• He believes that the tabloid press has behaved disgracefully.他认为小报媒体的行为不太光彩。

2 dubbed   

v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制

参考例句：

• Mathematics was once dubbed the handmaiden of the sciences. 数学曾一度被视为各门科学的基础。
• Is the movie dubbed or does it have subtitles? 这部电影是配音的还是打字幕的？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

4 breaching   

攻破( breach的过去式 )； 破坏，违反

参考例句：

• The company was prosecuted for breaching the Health and Safety Act. 这家公司被控违反《卫生安全条例》。
• Third, an agency can abuse its discretion by breaching certain principles of judge-made law. 第三，行政机关会因违反某些法官制定的法律原则而构成滥用自由裁量权。

5 tainted   

adj.腐坏的；污染的；沾污的；感染的v.使变质( taint的过去式和过去分词 )；使污染；败坏；被污染，腐坏，败坏

参考例句：

• The administration was tainted with scandal. 丑闻使得政府声名狼藉。
• He was considered tainted by association with the corrupt regime. 他因与腐败政府有牵连而名誉受损。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 smears   

污迹( smear的名词复数 )； 污斑； （显微镜的）涂片； 诽谤

参考例句：

• His evidence was a blend of smears, half truths and downright lies. 他的证词里掺杂着诽谤、部份的事实和彻头彻尾的谎言。
• Anything written with a soft pencil smears easily. 用软铅笔写成的东西容易污成一片。

7 redress   

n.赔偿，救济，矫正；v.纠正，匡正，革除

参考例句：

• He did all that he possibly could to redress the wrongs.他尽了一切努力革除弊端。
• Any man deserves redress if he has been injured unfairly.任何人若蒙受不公平的损害都应获得赔偿。

8 erasure   

n.擦掉，删去；删掉的词；消音；抹音

参考例句：

• The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth. 过去给人擦拭个干净，擦拭的行为又忘了个干净，于是，谎言就变成了真理。 来自英汉文学
• The inspection, modification, replacement or erasure of part of file's contents. 检查、修改、代替或擦去文档内容一部分的过程。 来自互联网

9 landmark   

n.陆标，划时代的事，地界标

参考例句：

• The Russian Revolution represents a landmark in world history.俄国革命是世界历史上的一个里程碑。
• The tower was once a landmark for ships.这座塔曾是船只的陆标。

10 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

11 irrelevant   

adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的

参考例句：

• That is completely irrelevant to the subject under discussion.这跟讨论的主题完全不相关。
• A question about arithmetic is irrelevant in a music lesson.在音乐课上，一个数学的问题是风马牛不相及的。

12 malice   

n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋

参考例句：

• I detected a suggestion of malice in his remarks.我觉察出他说的话略带恶意。
• There was a strong current of malice in many of his portraits.他的许多肖像画中都透着一股强烈的怨恨。

13 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

14 censor   

n./vt.审查，审查员；删改

参考例句：

• The film has not been viewed by the censor.这部影片还未经审查人员审查。
• The play was banned by the censor.该剧本被查禁了。

15 trumps   

abbr.trumpets 喇叭；小号；喇叭形状的东西；喇叭筒v.（牌戏）出王牌赢（一牌或一墩）( trump的过去式 )；吹号公告，吹号庆祝；吹喇叭；捏造

参考例句：

• On the day of the match the team turned up trumps. 比赛那天该队出乎意料地获得胜利。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Every time John is late getting home he trumps up some new excuse. 每次约翰晚回家都会编造个新借口。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 know-how   

n.知识；技术；诀窍

参考例句：

• He hasn't got the know-how to run a farm.他没有经营农场的专业知识。
• I don't have much know-how about engines.发动机方面的技术知识我知之甚少。

17 erase   

v.擦掉；消除某事物的痕迹

参考例句：

• He tried to erase the idea from his mind.他试图从头脑中抹掉这个想法。
• Please erase my name from the list.请把我的名字从名单上擦去。

18 hamper   

vt.妨碍，束缚，限制；n.(有盖的)大篮子

参考例句：

• There are some apples in a picnic hamper.在野餐用的大篮子里有许多苹果。
• The emergence of such problems seriously hamper the development of enterprises.这些问题的出现严重阻碍了企业的发展。

19 inconvenient   

adj.不方便的，令人感到麻烦的

参考例句：

• You have come at a very inconvenient time.你来得最不适时。
• Will it be inconvenient for him to attend that meeting?他参加那次会议会不方便吗？

20 wary   

adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的

参考例句：

• He is wary of telling secrets to others.他谨防向他人泄露秘密。
• Paula frowned,suddenly wary.宝拉皱了皱眉头，突然警惕起来。

21 ceding   

v.让给，割让，放弃( cede的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He was ceding line but more slowly all the time. 他正在放出钓索，然而越来越慢了。 来自英汉文学 - 老人与海
• Settlement would require ceding some Egyptian territory. 解决办法将要求埃及让出一些领土。 来自辞典例句

22 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

23 abridgment   

n.删节，节本

参考例句：

• An abridgment of the book has been published for young readers.他们为年轻读者出版了这本书的节本。
• This abridgment provides a concise presentation of this masterpiece of Buddhist literature.这个删节本提供了简明介绍佛教文学的杰作。