Information-Gathering, and Its Paradox
【By SOMINI SENGUPTA／聯合報╱王麗娟譯】
SAN FRANCISCO — Consumer trust is a vital currency for every big Internet company, which helps to explain why the giants of Silicon Valley have gone to great lengths to show how hard they are fighting back against government surveillance.
Companies have released reports enumerating how many times law enforcement agencies demand user data; their executives have issued blistering statements; and several firms, including Facebook and Google, have sued to reveal more about secret government orders.
All the while, though, a central contradiction has become ever harder to conceal. The Internet industry has built a trove of personal data for government agencies to mine — erecting what Alessandro Acquisti, a behavioral economist, calls “the de facto infrastructure of surveillance.”
Five months after Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, went public with classified documents detailing the agency’s spying, the Internet industry has only sharpened its efforts to track users, which it considers essential to profitability. Behaviorally targeted advertising is the principal revenue source for a host of online companies.
Google recently announced plans to feature users’ names, photos and posts to promote products in Web ads. Facebook expanded its search offerings and made it harder to hide from strangers. Digital advertising networks are developing sophisticated new ways to track consumers. And Twitter has partnered with a company that tracks whether ads on Twitter affect what someone buys offline.
There is a difference, of course, between government surveillance and commercial tracking.
The core distinction, industry executives say, is that Web companies do not have the power to prosecute anyone, as law enforcement agencies do. Rather, the industry is trying to discover users’ tastes and preferences, said Michael Moritz, a venture capitalist. “If you go to the heart of these companies, you have people wanting to make sure their products and services are as useful as possible to consumers,” he said.
But hang on, critics say. Commercial data collection has its own dangers. Posts on Twitter or Facebook can affect college admissions or prospects for employment. And the very collection of data creates a vast reservoir of information that intelligence agencies can tap into.
Since the N.S.A. leaks began, several companies have released reports listing how often governments around the world seek user data. The numbers themselves are revealing: Facebook received requests affecting over 20,000 accounts in the first half of 2013, Microsoft over 31,000, and Yahoo over 40,000 accounts.
Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft and Yahoo have filed suits in a secret United States court seeking permission to reveal data requests they receive under national security laws. The companies hope to show that the requests affect a relatively small share of users.
“The government response was, ‘Oh don’t worry, we’re not spying on any Americans,’ ” said Mark Zuckerberg, the head of Facebook and a critic of the N.S.A. program . “Oh, wonderful: that’s really helpful to companies trying to serve people around the world, and that’s really going to inspire confidence in American Internet companies.”
中譯
消費者的信任是所有大型網際網路公司的一大命脈，這有助於解釋何以矽谷諸巨擘要竭力表態，讓外界知道他們多麼努力在對抗政府的偵監。
這些公司發表報告列舉執法單位要求提供用戶資料的次數，公司高層也發表強硬聲明，臉書、谷歌等若干公司並已提告，要求准許揭露有關政府密令的更多細節。不過在此同時，一項中心矛盾也日益明顯。網路業者已堆砌出可供政府機關挖掘的個人資料寶庫，建構出行為經濟學家艾奎斯提所稱的「偵監的實質基礎設施」。
國家安全局前約聘人員史諾登公開機密文件，詳述國安局監控作業的五個月後，只見網路業者更加努力追蹤用戶，認為它是獲利關鍵。行為定位廣告是許多網路公司的主要收入來源。
谷歌最近宣布在網路廣告中以用戶名字、照片和貼文為特色以推銷產品的計畫。臉書已擴大搜索服務，讓用戶更難在陌生人前隱藏自己。數位廣告網絡正在開發先進的新方法以追蹤消費者。推特已與一公司合作追蹤是否推特的廣告會影響用戶離線時的購買行為。
誠然，政府的偵監與商業追蹤並不相同。業界主管說，核心差異在於網路公司無權起訴人，司法單位卻能。創投家莫里茨說，相反地，業界是想了解用戶的口味和喜好。他說：「進入這些公司的心臟，會發現他們想確保公司的產品與服務盡可能讓消費者覺得有用。」
不過，批評者說，且慢。廣告資料蒐集有其自身的危險。推特、臉書的貼文可能對申請大學入學是否成功或就業前景產生影響。且正是這種資料蒐集為情報單位提供了可利用的龐大資料庫。
國安局機密監控計畫外洩後，已有數家公司發表報告，列舉全球各地政府要求提供用戶資料的次數。這些數字本身就透露了一些真相：臉書2013年上半年接獲的要求涉及兩萬多個帳戶，微軟的超過3.1萬個，雅虎的更在4萬以上。
臉書、谷歌、LinkedIn、微軟和雅虎已向一美國聯邦秘密法庭提告，尋求准許他們透露在國安法下他們接獲的資料提供要求。他們想藉此說明這些要求只影響到相對少數的用戶。
對國安局偵監計畫頗有微詞的臉書執行長祖克柏說：「政府的答覆是『哦，別擔心，我們沒有偵監所有美國人』。哦，好極了：這對想要服務全球的公司還真有幫助，也還真能激發大眾對美國網路公司的信心。」
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