2013年考研英语一阅读 Text 2 原文翻译及答案解析

An old saying has it that half of all advertising budgets are wasted - the trouble is, no one knows which half. In the internet age, at least in theory, this fraction can be much reduced. By watching what people search for, click on and say online, companies can aim "behavioural" ads at those most likely to buy.

一句老话说，所有广告预算的一半都被浪费了——麻烦的是，没人知道是哪一半。在互联网时代，至少在理论上，这个比例可以大大降低。通过观察人们搜索、点击和在线言论，公司可以将“行为”广告瞄准那些最有可能购买的人。

In the past couple of weeks a quarrel has illustrated the value to advertisers of such fine-grained information: Should advertisers assume that people are happy to be tracked and sent behavioural ads? Or should they have explicit permission?

过去几周，一场争论说明了这种细粒度信息对广告商的价值：广告商应该假设人们乐于被追踪并接收行为广告吗？还是应该获得明确的许可？

In December 2010 America's Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposed adding a "do not track" (DNT) option to internet browsers, so that users could tell advertisers that they did not want to be followed. Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Apple's Safari both offer DNT; Google's Chrome is due to do so this year. In February the FTC and the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) agreed that the industry would get cracking on responding to DNT requests.

2010年12月，美国联邦贸易委员会（FTC）提议在互联网浏览器中添加“禁止追踪”（DNT）选项，以便用户能告诉广告商他们不想被追踪。微软的Internet Explorer和苹果的Safari都提供DNT；谷歌的Chrome计划今年提供。2月份，FTC和数字广告联盟（DAA）同意，行业将开始响应DNT请求。

On May 31st Microsoft set off the row. It said that Internet Explorer 10, the version due to appear with Windows 8, would have DNT as a default.

5月31日，微软引发了这场争论。它表示，Internet Explorer 10，即计划随Windows 8一同发布的版本，将默认设置DNT。

Advertisers are horrified. Human nature being what it is, most people stick with default settings. Few switch DNT on now, but if tracking is off it will stay off. Bob Liodice, the chief executive of the Association of National Advertisers, says consumers will be worse off if the industry cannot collect information about their preferences. People will not get fewer ads, he says. "They'll get less meaningful, less targeted ads."

广告商感到震惊。鉴于人性如此，大多数人会坚持默认设置。现在很少有人会开启DNT，但如果追踪被关闭，它将保持关闭状态。全国广告商协会的首席执行官Bob Liodice表示，如果行业无法收集关于消费者偏好的信息，消费者将处于更糟的境地。他说，人们不会看到更少的广告。“他们将看到更少有意义、更少针对性的广告。”

It is not yet clear how advertisers will respond. Getting a DNT signal does not oblige anyone to stop tracking, although some companies have promised to do so. Unable to tell whether someone really objects to behavioural ads or whether they are sticking with Microsoft's default, some may ignore a DNT signal and press on anyway.

广告商将如何回应尚不清楚。收到DNT信号并不强制任何人停止追踪，尽管一些公司已经承诺这样做。由于无法判断某人是否真正反对行为广告，还是他们只是坚持微软的默认设置，一些公司可能会忽略DNT信号并继续进行追踪。

Also unclear is why Microsoft has gone it alone. After all, it has an ad business too, which it says will comply with DNT requests, though it is still working out how. If it is trying to upset Google, which relies almost wholly on advertising, it has chosen an indirect method: there is no guarantee that DNT by default will become the norm. DNT does not seem an obviously huge selling point for windows 8 - though the firm has compared some of its other products favourably with Google's on that count before. Brendon Lynch, Microsoft's chief privacy officer, blogged: "We believe consumers should have more control." Could it really be that simple?

同样不清楚的是为什么微软要单独行动。毕竟，它也有广告业务，它表示将遵守DNT请求，尽管仍在制定如何遵守。如果它试图激怒几乎完全依赖广告的谷歌，它选择了一种间接方法：无法保证默认DNT会成为常态。DNT似乎并不是Windows 8一个明显巨大的卖点——尽管该公司以前曾在此方面将其一些其他产品与谷歌的产品进行过有利比较。微软的首席隐私官Brendon Lynch在博客中写道：“我们相信消费者应该拥有更多控制权。” 真的就这么简单吗？

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