硅谷高管承認低估公衆對網絡隱私擔憂

The US tech industry has failed to appreciate the mounting global concern over its record on online privacy and security and must act fast to prevent deeper damage to its image, Silicon Valley’s top executives and investors have conceded.

美國硅谷的高管和投資者們承認，美國高科技行業沒有意識到其網絡隱私及安全記錄正不斷引起全球擔憂，必須迅速採取行動，以防行業形象受到更大損害。

The self-criticism, much of it aimed at consumer internet groups Google and Facebook, comes as some of the sector’s best-known names have been battered by a backlash over revelations of widespread US internet surveillance and concerns about their cultural dominance.

這些檢討大部分針對消費者互聯網巨頭谷歌(Google)和Facebook。美國大規模互聯網監視行爲的揭露，以及對其文化優勢的擔憂引起了人們的強烈反對，令該行業部分知名人士飽受抨擊。

Peter Thiel, a start-up investor and Facebook director, said: “Silicon Valley is quite oblivious to the degree to which this crescendo of concern is building up in Europe. It’s an extremely important thing and Silicon Valley is underestimating it badly.”

Facebook董事、風險資本家皮特•泰爾(Peter Thiel)說：“硅谷沒有察覺到歐洲不斷加劇的擔憂情緒。它非常重要，而硅谷卻嚴重低估了它。”

Google has been most in the line of fire, with the European Commission turning up the heat in a competition case last week and a recent “right to be forgotten” legal ruling forcing it to remove some links from its European search services.

谷歌一直處於風口浪尖，歐盟委員會(European Commission)上週在一起反壟斷案中加大了對谷歌的壓力，以及近期在一項“被遺忘權”裁決中迫使谷歌刪除歐洲搜索服務的部分鏈接。

“I was surprised it turned this quickly,” Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google, said of the change in the political mood over US tech. However, he denied that Silicon Valley had failed to anticipate the concerns. “It’s easy to blame the tech companies for being insufficiently sensitive – we are way sensitive, trust me.”

谷歌董事長埃裏克•施密特(Eric Schmidt)在談到圍繞美國科技產業的政治情緒的變化時說：“我很驚訝會變得這麼快。”不過他否認硅谷未能預見到這些關切。“人們很容易指責科技公司不夠敏感——我們是相當敏感的，相信我。”

Mr Thiel conceded that Facebook had work to do on its approach to Europe: “We certainly don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all. Facebook would like to be more sensitive to more local concerns.”

泰爾承認Facebook在歐洲的做法有待改進：“我們當然不認爲存在適用於所有情況的策略。Facebook希望能對當地的關切更加敏感。”

Marc Benioff, chief executive of , one of the biggest sellers of internet-based services to businesses, said consumer internet companies had “paid a terrible price” for imposing a US-centric view of their technology.

首席執行官馬克•班尼奧夫(Marc Benioff)表示，消費者互聯網公司用自己的技術強推“美國中心”觀念，已經爲此“付出了慘痛代價”。是一家大型的基於互聯網的企業服務公司。

Jim Breyer, an early investor and former board member of Facebook, said the US government and tech companies had to “step up significantly if they want to regain the world’s trust”.

Facebook早期投資者和前董事會成員吉姆•佈雷耶(Jim Breyer)表示，美國政府及高科技公司不得不“大大加快行動，如果他們還想重獲全世界的信任”。

The backlash over privacy and security has started to ripple more widely through Silicon Valley, where young companies have raced to launch new technologies without making these issues an overriding priority.

圍繞隱私和安全方面產生的強烈抵制情緒已開始在硅谷產生廣泛影響。一直以來，硅谷的年輕公司爭相推出新技術，沒將隱私和安全當做重中之重。

The tensions have exposed rifts inside the industry. While companies such as Facebook and Google claim to have seen little damage to their business, those selling cloud services are expected to lose $22bn-$45bn over the next three years as a result of the Snowden backlash, according to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

這一緊張局勢已暴露了科技行業內的裂痕。雖然Facebook和谷歌等公司聲稱其業務沒受到太大影響，但根據信息技術創新基金會(Information Technology and Innovation Foundation)的數據，在斯諾登事件影響下，雲服務銷售商未來3年預計將損失220美元到450億美元。

“Some in our industry have underestimated the degree to which people care about privacy,” said Brad Smith, general counsel of Microsoft, which is trying to refocus its business on cloud services. “I’m not sure across Silicon Valley people have completely woken up to this.”

微軟(Microsoft)法律總顧問布拉德•史密斯(Brad Smith)表示：“我們行業的一些人低估了人們對隱私的在意程度。我不知道硅谷的人是否都清醒地注意到了這一點。”微軟正準備重新把雲服務作爲一項核心業務。