Revelations about the activities of the US National Security Agency, and the extent to which it spies on foreign citizens, are triggering intense debate across the world. For some, the leaks by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden are the cause for much alarm, amid signs the agency hoovers up vast amounts of internet data on foreign citizens. For others, there are fears that the leaks have weakened the US intelligence services, undermining their counter-terrorism efforts.
关于美国国家安全局(NSA)的活动以及它大规模监听外国公民的爆料,在世界各地引发了激烈辩论。有些人认为,鉴于NSA大量收集外国公民的互联网信息,前NSA合同工爱德华•斯诺登(Edward Snowden)所泄露的情况应当引起高度警觉。还有一些人则担心,这样的爆料行为会削弱美国情报机构,阻碍其反恐努力。
Wherever one stands in this debate, one fear should unite all. This is the risk that the controversy over the NSA will lead to a “Balkanisation” of the internet. This is the risk that governments around the world will respond by ringfencing their networks in order to protect their citizens’ data and limit the ability of the NSA to conduct its spying.
不论人们各自抱着什么样的意见,有一种令人担忧的可能性应当能让他们统一立场。这种风险是,围绕NSA的争议有可能导致互联网“割据化”,即各国政府为了应对当前局面,将各自国家的互联网圈护起来,以保护本国公民的数据,限制NSA开展间谍活动的能力。
There are several signs that nations are moving in this direction. After reports that the US spied on the email of Dilma Rousseff, the Brazilian president, her government has announced plans to promote its own networking technology, even setting up a secure national email service. Michel Barnier, the European commissioner for the internal market, has suggested Europe should develop its own “European data cloud”, independent of US oversight. The EU, meanwhile, is considering revoking data sharing agreements with the US, requiring American website providers to warn Europeans that their data are subject to US surveillance.
一些国家就有这样做的迹象。在媒体报道美国监视巴西总统迪尔玛•罗塞夫(Dilma Rousseff)的电子邮件后,巴西政府宣布计划推广自主网络技术,甚至打算开发一项安全可靠的国家电子邮件服务。欧盟(EU)内部市场专员米歇尔•巴尼耶(Michel Barnier)建议,欧洲应自主开发不受美国监视的“欧洲数据云”。欧盟还考虑废除与美国的数据共享协议,并要求美国网站提供商提示欧洲用户:他们的数据会受到美国监视。
Such developments are of concern. The worldwide web is the most open communications platform on the planet. It is an engine of the world economy, accounting for a fifth of gross domestic product growth in advanced economies over the past five years. If it is transformed from a global commons to a patchwork of national cloud networks, the economic fallout will be immense.
事态的发展令人担心。万维网是地球上最开放的交流平台。它是世界经济的引擎,贡献了发达经济体过去5年国内生产总值(GDP)增长的五分之一。如果它从全世界的“公地”转变为各国云网络的拼凑物,对经济造成的影响将十分严重。
A disproportionate share of internet traffic flows through America, giving US internet companies global sway. However, the Balkanisation of the internet will add hugely to the costs borne by tech groups such as Google and Facebook, which would have to set up regional subsidiaries.
通过美国的互联网流量所占比例过高,使美国互联网公司具有了全球影响力。互联网割据化将使谷歌(Google)、Facebook等科技公司的成本大为增加,它们将被迫在各地区成立子公司。
There will also be a political gift to authoritarian states such as China and Russia, which operate closed national intranet systems to limit information flows. These states will be far from unhappy to witness the internet fragmenting.
中国、俄罗斯等威权国家运营着封闭的全国性内网系统,以限制信息流动,美国监听一事的曝光对它们而言不啻为一份政治大礼。看到互联网分裂,这些国家绝不会不乐意。
The Obama administration needs to start acting to arrest this process. It must give western governments assurances that the NSA is becoming more accountable and transparent in its operations. The NSA is currently in a position to monitor internet traffic that passes from one European citizen to another, simply because it passes through US servers. The US must guarantee limits on this.
奥巴马政府需要行动起来,阻止这一进程。它必须向西方国家政府保证,NSA的工作将更负责、更透明。NSA目前能监控欧洲公民相互之间发送的互联网信息,正是因为流量会通过美国服务器。美国必须保证在这方面实施限制。
The US must also give assurances that the NSA will stop undermining the security of its internet titans. It emerged last week that the NSA has secretly broken into the main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centres around the world, accessing data without prior judicial oversight. This has left the companies struggling to reassure its global users about the security of their personal information.
美国还必须保证,NSA将停止破坏本国互联网巨头公司的安全性。上周有消息曝出,NSA秘密入侵了连接雅虎(Yahoo)和谷歌全球各地数据中心的主要通讯网络,在事先无司法监督的情况下访问数据。这种做法使各科技公司难以让全球用户相信他们个人信息是安全的。
In short, the interests of US national security need to be balanced by commercial imperatives. The US clearly wants to maintain a strong counter-terrorism capability. But protecting the role and reputation of US communications companies – and their place in a seamless worldwide web – is a crucial economic goal. As the controversy over the NSA continues, the risk that the US faces is that the unfettered power of the agency will ultimately damage America’s internet companies – the symbol of US technology leadership.
简言之,必须在美国国家安全利益和商业需要之间找到平衡。美国无疑希望维持强大的反恐能力。但保护美国通信公司的地位和声望,以及它们在一个无缝的万维网中的地位,也是极为重要的经济目标。随着围绕NSA的争议持续,美国面临的风险是,NSA权力不受限制终将损害美国互联网公司的利益,而互联网企业是美国在科技方面领导地位的象征。
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