来源：《洛杉矶时报》
刊登日期：2021年3月5日
超纲词：hefty，snippet，enact
The commercial internet developed with so little regard for privacy, tech companies have been able to turn personal data into hefty profits. This week, Google announced a step in the right direction — but not a giant step, nor one that will stop Google from continuing to collect immense amounts of personal data.
商业互联网的发展几乎不考虑隐私，科技公司能够将个人数据转化为巨额利润。本周，谷歌宣布了朝着正确方向迈出的一步——但这并不是一大步，也不会阻止谷歌继续收集大量的个人数据。
At issue is how online companies track internet users as they browse from site to site online, typically through snippets of code known as cookies. The most harmful version, “third-party” cookies, is the technique of a company using to surveil what you do when you’re on other companies’ sites.
问题在于，当互联网用户在网上浏览一个又一个网站时，网络公司如何追踪他们，通常是通过被称为cookie的代码片段。最有害的变种，是第三方cookie，一种网络公司用来监视你在其他网站上活动的技术。
Google declared in a blog post Wednesday that it would no longer use or support third-party cookies, nor would it create or use any other technology that tracks individual users across the web. Given that Google is a main supplier of online advertising technology, its change in approach will influence far and wide.
谷歌周三在一篇博客文章中宣布，将不再使用或支持第三方cookie，也不会推出或使用任何其他技术来跟踪网络上的个人用户。鉴于谷歌是在线广告技术的主要供应商，其在方法上的改变将产生深远的影响。
That’s welcome news. Third-party cookies were already on the retreat, with Apple and other makers of popular web browsers moving to block them. Meanwhile, Google, Facebook and other Big Tech companies continue to collect personal information in abundance from people who use their sites and services through first-party cookies and similar techniques.
这是受欢迎的消息。第三方cookie已经开始退却，苹果和其他受欢迎的浏览器开发商开始屏蔽它们。与此同时，谷歌、Facebook和其他大型科技公司继续通过第一方cookie和类似技术，从使用其网站和服务的用户那里收集大量的个人信息。
The concerns about personal data collection are the same whether it’s being collected through first-party or third-party techniques, said Michelle Richardson of the Center for Democracy and Technology: Companies may use the information to discriminate among internet users, offering different goods, services and even prices to different users.
民主与技术中心的米歇尔•理查森表示，无论是通过第一方还是第三方技术收集个人数据，人们的担忧是相同的：企业可能会利用这些信息对互联网用户进行区别对待，向不同的用户提供不同的商品、服务甚至价格。
Instead of helping advertisers track individuals, Google says, it is refining a technology that assigns users anonymously to large groups with common interests. That’s an improvement, even though it too may be vulnerable to abuse. But why do any form of tracking at all? Privacy advocates say pitches can be targeted effectively by basing them on where the user is at the moment (contextual advertising), not where he or she has visited previously online (behavioral advertising).
谷歌表示，为了取代帮助广告客户追踪个人的做法，其正在完善一项技术，将用户匿名分配给具有共同兴趣的大型团体。这是一种进步，尽管也可能被滥用。实际上，有必要进行任何形式的跟踪呢？隐私倡导者说，通过基于用户当前所在位置(上下文广告)，而不是他或她之前访问过哪里(行为广告)，可以有效地投放广告。