来源：《基督科学箴言报》
原文刊登日期：2021年6月10日
On Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland told Congress what he has put at the top of his to-do list as head of the Justice Department: investigating a massive leak of individual tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service.
周三，司法部长梅里克·加兰对国会表示，作为司法部负责人，他把调查国税局个人纳税申报单的大规模泄露列为首要任务。
“This is an extremely serious matter,” said Garland. “People are entitled, obviously, to the greatest privacy with respect to their tax returns.”
“这是一个极其严重的问题，”加兰说。“显然，人们有权在纳税申报单方面享有最大程度的隐私。”
The leak contained the personal financial information of thousands of wealthy Americans and was partially published Tuesday by an investigative news site, ProPublica. The data itself – which showed how legal tax breaks have helped the super-rich pay a small percentage of their total wealth to the government – was not much of a revelation. What concerned many Democrats and Republicans was that Americans might now lose trust in the IRS and erode their high rate of voluntary tax compliance.
这起泄密事件包含了数千名美国富人的个人财务信息，部分信息于周二由一家调查性新闻网站ProPublica公布。数据本身并不是轰动性的曝光。该数据显示，合法的税收优惠如何帮助超级富豪只将其总财富的一小部分支付给了政府。让许多民主党人和共和党人担心的是，美国人现在可能会对国税局失去信任，削弱他们的高自愿纳税率。
“Anything short of the highest degree of privacy protection for taxpayers’ information could cause them to be far less willing to provide the information that is required by the IRS for full compliance,” said a republican Senator.
一位共和党参议员表示：“对纳税人信息的隐私保护程度若不达到最高水平，可能导致他们不太愿意提供国税局要求的完全合规的信息。”
To fund his spending plans, President Biden is counting on the IRS to find more revenue – at least $480 billion – by improving the agency’s tax enforcement. That effort has now been jeopardized by the leak and the potential loss of faith in fair tax collection. “Trust and confidence in the Internal Revenue Service is sort of the bedrock of asking people and requiring people to provide financial information,” said IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig.
为了给其支出计划提供资金，拜登总统指望美国国税局通过改善税收执法来增加收入，至少达到4800亿美元。这一努力现在因为泄密事件和人们对公平收税可能失去的信心而受到了损害。国税局局长查尔斯•雷蒂格表示:“对国税局的信任和信心是要求人们提供财务信息的基础。”
The leak comes as the Biden administration, Congress, and numerous states are trying to devise new rules and laws on data protection. “In the past four months of 2021, the amount of state legislative activity around consumer data privacy laws has been frantic,” says corporate attorney Rita Garry. In high-tech, Apple, Google, Facebook, and similar companies are racing to keep up with rising consumer demands for privacy by offering more protection in their software.
此次泄密事件发生之际，拜登政府、国会和许多州正试图制定有关数据保护的新规则和法律。企业律师丽塔•加里表示:“在2021年的过去4个月里，各州围绕消费者数据隐私法的立法活动非常多。”在高科技领域，苹果、谷歌、Facebook和类似的公司正竞相通过在软件中提供更多的保护，以跟上消费者对隐私保护日益增长的需求。
A poll in April found 83% of Americans want Congress to pass privacy legislation. They cite a high concern for the security of their Social Security number, banking information, biometric data, and driver’s license number.
4月份的一项民意调查显示，83%的美国人希望国会通过隐私立法。他们对自己的社会安全号码、银行信息、生物特征数据和驾照号码的安全性表示高度关注。
Respecting data privacy is essential not only for people’s financial welfare but also their identity. It honors core values of personal autonomy and the presumption of innocence. “Without privacy, concepts such as identity, dignity, autonomy, independence, imagination, and creativity are more difficult to realize and maintain,” writes David Anderson, Britain’s former reviewer of counter-terrorism legislation.
尊重个人数据私隐不仅关乎个人的经济利益，亦关乎个人的身份。它尊重个人自主和无罪推定的核心价值观。“没有隐私，身份、尊严、自主、独立、想象力和创造力等概念就更难实现和维持，”英国前反恐立法审查员戴维·安德森写道。
Garland’s urgency to find the source of the IRS leak reflects a bipartisan concern to restore trust in government and the ability of individuals to govern their own data. Self-governance lies at the heart of democracy. It also helps explain why an estimated 83% of Americans pay taxes willingly.
加兰迫切希望找到国税局泄密的源头，反映出两党的关切：恢复对政府的信任，以及个人管理自己数据的能力。自治是民主的核心。这也有助于解释为什么约83%的美国人愿意纳税。