Too Much Information

Nick Berthoud

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在信息傳播極為發(fā)達(dá)的時(shí)代，我們每個(gè)人在日常生活中的小玩笑或不經(jīng)意的行為，一經(jīng)網(wǎng)絡(luò)傳播，都有可能被無限放大，甚至登上新聞頭條。一方面，我們通過微博之類的社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)能夠很方便地和朋友進(jìn)行分享互動；但另一方面，這也讓我們在不知不覺中泄露了個(gè)人隱私，變成“過度分享”。與其責(zé)怪網(wǎng)絡(luò)公司沒有保護(hù)好用戶個(gè)人信息，我們是否可以從自身出發(fā)，三思之后再發(fā)帖呢？

In October 2012 a woman from Massachusetts called Lindsey Stone went on a work trip to Washington DC, and paid a visit to Arlington National Cemetery1. Arlington National Cemetery: 美國阿靈頓國家公墓，坐落于美國弗吉尼亞州阿靈頓郡，長眠在這里被視為安息者的光榮。,where American war heroes are buried. Crouching2. crouch: 蹲伏，彎腰。next to a sign that said‘Silence and Respect’, she raised a middle finger and pretended to shout while a colleague took her photo. It was the kind of puerile clowning that most of us (well me, anyway) have indulged in at some point, and once upon a time, the resulting image would have been noticed only by the few friends or family to whom the owner of the camera showed it.3.這就是大多數(shù)人（當(dāng)然也包括我自己在內(nèi)）在某些情況下熱衷的孩子氣的胡鬧拍照行為。曾幾何時(shí)，這些照片本應(yīng)該只會被拍照人的少數(shù)朋友或家人看到（而現(xiàn)在情況并非如此）。puerile: 孩子氣的，天真的；indulge in: 沉溺于，肆意從事。However, this being the era of sharing, Stone posted the photo to her Facebook pro file.

Within weeks, a ‘Fire Lindsey Stone’ page had materialised, populated by commentators frothing with outrage at a desecration of hallowed ground.4. froth: 發(fā)泄，表達(dá)；desecration:褻瀆神明；hallowed ground: 圣地。Anger rained down on Stone’s employer, a non-pro fit that helps adults with special needs.Her employers decided, reluctantly, that Stone and her colleague would have to leave.

Stone’s story is hardly unique. Every day, embarrassments are endured, jobs lost and individuals endangered because of unforeseen consequences triggered by a tweet or a status update. Despite the many anxious articles about the latest change to Facebook’s privacy settings, we just don’t seem to be able to get our heads around the idea that when we post our private life, we publish it.

At the beginning of this year, Facebook launched the drably5. drably: 單調(diào)地，枯燥乏味地。named ‘Graph Search’,a search engine that allows you to crawl through the data in everyone else’s pro files.Days after it went live, a tech-savvy6. savvy: 懂行的，精通的。Londoner called Tom Scott started a blog in which he posted details of searches that he had performed using the new service. By putting together imaginative combinations of ‘likes’ and pro file settings he managed to turn up‘Married people who like prostitutes’, ‘Single women nearby who like to get drunk’, and‘Islamic men who are interested in other men and live in Tehran’ (where homosexuality is illegal).7. prostitute: 娼妓；Tehran: 德黑蘭，伊朗的首都； homosexuality:同性戀。

Scott was careful to erase names from the screenshots he posted online: he didn’t want to land anyone in trouble with employers, or predatory sociopaths, or agents of repressive regimes,8. predatory: 掠奪性的； sociopath:反社會的人；regime: 社會制度。or all three at once. But his findings served as a reminder that many Facebook users are standing in their bedroom naked without realising there’s a crowd outside the window. Facebook says that as long as users are given the full range of privacy options, they can be relied on to figure them out. Privacy campaigners want Facebook and others to be clearer and more upfront with users about who can view their personal data. Both agree that users deserve to be given control over their choices.

But what if the problem isn’t Facebook’s privacy settings, but our own?

Just as many people mistakenly think that driving is safer than flying because they feel they have more control over it, so giving people more privacy settings to fiddle with makes them worry less about what they actually divulge.9. fiddle with: 擺弄；divulge: 泄露。

Then again, perhaps none of this matters. Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg is not the only tech person to suggest that privacy is an anachronistic social convention about which younger generations care little.10.Facebook創(chuàng)始人馬克·扎克伯格曾說過隱私權(quán)是一種過時(shí)的社會傳統(tǒng)，年輕一代甚少關(guān)注。同行中不止他一個(gè)人表達(dá)過類似的觀點(diǎn)。anachronistic: 過時(shí)的。There are many anthropological11. anthropological: 人類學(xué)的。reports of premodern societies whose members happily coexisted while carrying out almost all of their lives in public view.

Over time, we will probably get smarter about online sharing. But right now, we’re pretty stupid about it. Perhaps this is because, at some primal12. primal: 最初的。level, we don’t really believe in the internet. Humans evolved their instinct for privacy in a world where words and acts disappeared the moment they were spoken or made. Our brains are barely getting used to the idea that our thoughts or actions can be written down or photographed, let alone take on a free- floating, indestructible life of their own.13. 我們的大腦好不容易才慢慢習(xí)慣“人類的思想或行為可能會被文字或圖片定格”，而關(guān)于“人們的生活可以自由自在、堅(jiān)不可摧，不受外界的束縛和影響”這一觀點(diǎn)，我們需要更多的時(shí)間去消化。Until we catch up, we’ll continue to overshare.

The internal memo enabled us to capture and store our thoughts and memories but,today, the best thing about paper is that it can be shredded14. shred: 切碎，撕碎。.