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新视野大学英语读写教程第四册unit4-c Section C Privacy in the Information A

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Privacy in the Information Age

Imagine a small plastic card that holds all manner of information about you on a tiny memory chip (芯片): your date of birth, Social Security Number, credit and medical histories. And suppose the same card lets you drive a car, get medicine, get cash from machines, pay parking tickets, and collect government benefits.

One version of this so-called smart card is already in use. Some insurance companies issue medical history cards of customers, who need them to get medicine. This type of technology evolves out of convenience, says Evan Hendricks (伊万·亨德里克斯), editor of the Privacy Times (《私密时代》) newspaper, but "the dark side is that landlords, employers, and insurance companies could say we won't do business with you unless you show us your card."

Personal information gets harder to protect as more companies and government agencies build computerized databases (数据库) that are easily linked. "You can go from one database to another the way people go from one bar to another," says Hendricks. "The information superhighway will probably be developed by corporations, but the government is always willing to associate itself with these things. Companies develop databases to better target customers and then the government uses these databases for investigating crimes."

According to writer Simson L. Garfinkel (辛姆森·L. 加芬克尔), the database trend started with Ronald Reagan's stories of people on welfare cheating the government. "It was called Operation Match (匹配行动)," says a privacy expert, "and it matched databases of people who owed money to the government with other databases of people who received money from the government. Operation Match went after government employees who had not paid back student loans the government had given them for college, and welfare clients with large unreported incomes."

Saving the public from cheats and criminals has been an effective excuse for cutting back everyone's personal privacy. The government has been pressing for computer makers to include a special chip in their machines to allow police agencies to listen to electronic communications. The administration claims that failing to do so would be begging terrorists and criminals to plot together via the information superhighway.

That may still seem like something from a spy movie; more troubling is the growing ease with which everyday information can be accessed. Take the computerization of medical records. As one writer points out, "your video renting habits are better protected by law than your medical records." That's because there's more money in your medical records. A privacy expert says insurance companies generate "lists of individuals with certain kinds of medical problems and then turn around and sell those lists to medicine companies and other businesses."

Medical records are used to make a whole host of decisions about you that aren't related to your health. According to a 1991 government report, "50 percent of employers regularly use medical record information for hiring and promotion purposes. Of those who use this information, nearly 20 percent… do not inform their employees that their medical records have been used for such purposes." One company won't hire smokers, and another fired an employee after finding out he drank heavily at parties.

Employers and landlords often buy this information from companies that are in the business of creating data profiles. Besides criminal history, workers' insurance claims, and civil court records, one of their core products is credit information, which isn't always accurate. One of the country's largest credit bureaus paid out a huge amount of money a few years ago after settling a court case filed by 19 states claiming the company's reports were full of errors.

But the biggest information gatherer of them all is the Department of Motor Vehicles (汽车管理部门), or DMV, of each state, according to Garfinkel. "The DMV is a one-stop shop for state agencies that want to reach out and affect our lives," he writes. Given the existing system, which links together all 51 U.S. motor vehicle agencies, "no other state agency tracks the movement of people more accurately."

Nor is DMV data used solely for matters related to driving. "The state of Oregon (俄勒冈州) has 109 different offenses that can result in the temporary loss of a driver's license; 50 of them have nothing at all to do with driving," writes Garfinkel. Residents of the state of Wisconsin (威斯康星州), he notes, can lose their license for not paying library fines, neglecting to shovel snow away from the walk in front of their house, or failing to trim a tree whose branches hang over a neighbor's property. In the state of Kentucky (肯塔基州), students who drop out of school, have nine or more absences without being excused, or whose grades are below a given standard, lose their driving privileges "unless they can prove family hardship".

It's hard to avoid being seen on the DMV computer screens, but there are ways to keep a low profile in other areas. One health official recommends that when you sign a medical form you change it to make it clear "that you do not consent to having information re-released or sold to a second party without your direct, written consent".

Lots of other advice is available in publications listed in the Whole Earth Review (《全球评论》)(Fall 1993). Two of the most intriguing books on the list are Privacy for Sale (《出卖隐私》) by Jeffrey Rothfeder (杰弗里·罗斯费德) and Your Right to Privacy (《你的隐私权》)by Evan Hendricks of Privacy Times newsletter. Another well-known and useful periodical is the monthly Privacy Journal (《隐私月报》).

Words: 887

    信息时代的个人隐私
    设想一下一张小小的塑料卡,在微小的记忆芯片上存有关于你的所有信息: 出生日期、社会保障号、信用记录和病史。 想一想,这同一张卡能使你驾车、就医、从取款机中提款、付停车费、领政府补助。
    这种所谓的智能卡已有一款正在使用。 有些保险公司发行了客户的医疗记录卡,客户凭这些卡才能就医。 《私密时代》报纸编辑伊万·亨德里克斯说,为方便起见产生了这门技术,但是,"其不便之处就是房东、雇主或保险公司等会说,我们不会与你谈正事的, 除非你出示该卡。"
    随着更多的公司与政府机构建立了电脑管理的、可随时联网的数据库,个人信息更难保护了。 "你可以从一个数据库进入另一个数据库,就像人们从一间酒吧到另一间酒吧一样," 亨德里克斯说。 "信息高速公路很可能由大企业开发,但政府总喜欢参与这些事情。 企业开发数据库以更好地定位客户,然后政府就用这些数据库来调查犯罪。"
    据作者辛姆森·L·加芬克尔说,这种利用数据库掌握情况的趋势始自罗纳德·里根关于领救济金的人对政府有欺骗行为的说法。 一位隐私权方面的专家说:"这被称作'匹配行动', 它将那些欠有政府款项的人的数据库与那些从政府获得款项的人的数据库一一对应。 '匹配行动'跟踪记录那些未归还政府助学贷款的政府雇员,以及隐瞒大笔收入的福利救济对象。"
    保护公众不受欺骗和侵害一直是降低个人隐私程度的有效借口。 政府一直在敦促电脑制造商在机中加装一块特殊的芯片以使警方能接听电子通信。 政府称不这样做就等于让恐怖分子和犯罪分子通过信息高速公路来共同策划阴谋。
    这仍感觉像是间谍片中的场景;更使人不安的是日常信息可以越来越容易地被获取。 以医疗档案的电脑化管理为例。 正如一位作者所指出的那样,"你租借录像带的习惯都能比你的医疗记录得到更好的法律保护。" 那是因为医疗档案涉及到更多的钱。 一位隐私权专家说,保险公司列出"有某些健康问题的人员名单,又转而将这些名单卖给制药公司和其他的企业"。
    医疗档案被用来做出很多与你相关的决定,而这些决定却与你的健康无关。 据一份1991年的政府报告称:"50%的雇主经常用医疗档案里的信息来决定是否雇用或提拔某人。 那些利用这种信息的人中,约20%的人……不会告诉雇员他们的医疗档案曾被用于此种目的。 "某公司不雇用吸烟者,另一家则在发现雇员在晚会上酗酒后将其解雇。
    雇主、房东们常向开发数据档案的公司购买这类信息。 除了犯罪记录、劳工保险索赔、民事法庭记录外,这些公司的核心产品之一是信用信息,而这种信用信息却并非总是准确的。 几年前,19个州指控国内一家大型信用机构的报告错误百出,这家公司因此付了一大笔钱。
    不过据加芬克尔说,最大的信息收集机构还是各州的汽车管理部门,简称DMV。 他写道:"对想要影响我们、管得过宽的政府机构来说,DMV正是它们获得所需信息的一站式供应处。 "现有的系统将美国所有51个汽车管理部门连接起来,在这一点上,"任何其他的政府机构都不可能比它更准确地跟踪人们的行为。"
    DMV的数据也并非仅用于与开车有关的事情。 加芬克尔写道:"俄勒冈州有109种不同的违规行为可导致暂时吊销驾驶执照,而其中50种与开车毫无关系。"  他提到,威斯康星州的居民可能会因未付图书馆罚款,未将门前步道上的积雪清除,未将伸到邻家宅院上的树枝修剪掉而失去驾驶执照。 在肯塔基州,退学的学生,无故旷课达9次以上的学生,或分数达不到某一标准的学生,都会失去驾驶执照,"除非他们能证明其家庭有困难"。
    很难使自己的信息不出现在DMV的电脑屏幕上。但还是有办法在其他方面使自己的情况少为人知。 一位卫生官员建议,当填写医疗表格时,你可改变一下,清楚地表明"你不同意在没有你的直接书面同意的情况下将你的信息泄露或出卖给第二方"。
    《全球评论》(1993年秋季号)列出了一些提供了很多其他建议的出版物。 这一书单上两本最令人感兴趣的书是杰弗里·罗斯费德所著的《出卖隐私》和通信刊物《私密时代》的伊万·亨德里克斯所写的《你的隐私权》。 另一本著名而实用的期刊是月刊《隐私月报》。

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