VOA常速英语2014--US Phone Companies Fight Possible Changes In Data Collection 国安局收集电话记录引发担忧

US Phone Companies Fight Possible Changes In Data Collection 国安局收集电话记录引发担忧

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is expected to announce Friday that he will modify the way U.S. intelligence agencies collect information. The president is said to be backing away from a proposal to have the National Security Agency transfer its vast records of phone calls to telecommunications companies.

The reforms will not be as far-reaching as a presidential advisory 1 committee recommended, according to a report in The New York Times.

纽约时报报道说，这一改革正如总统咨询委员会说的那样，是具有深远影响的。

The committee advised the president to order the NSA to stop storing the records of millions of phone calls and, instead, have phone companies - or some third party - do it.

该委员会建议总统下令美国国家安全局停止保存数百万电话记录，由电话公司或第三方来做这件事。

The Times says Obama will not issue that order Friday, but will ask Congress to help him decide how best to store the data.

纽约时报称奥巴马周五不会发布这条命令，但会请求国会帮助决定储存数据的最好办法。

The NSA says its broad collection of so-called metadata is necessary to fight terrorism.

国安局称广泛收集的所谓元数据是为了打击恐怖主义。

The proposal to move phone records from NSA control was meant to blunt criticism that the bulk collection threatens privacy.

有批评称这批大量数据威胁到隐私，将电话记录从国安局控制之下收回的建议就是意在回应这一批评。

The NSA would then need a warrant to access the information - which includes phone logs, but not the content of conversations - said James Andrew Lewis, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

国安局需要委令状才能获得这些信息，包括电话呼叫记录，但不包括谈话内容，战略和国际研究中心的杰姆斯·安得烈·刘易斯如是说。

“The phone companies already have the metadata. Metadata, despite all the noise, is basically your phone bill. So they’ve got it, and NSA could get it from them with a warrant any time they wanted. NSA doesn’t need to hold it, and the phone companies already have it,” said Lewis.

“电话公司已经有这些元数据，尽管有争议不断，但元数据基本上就是话费单，所以电话公司有这些信息，国安局在想要的时候可以凭委令状获得。国安局不需要加以制止，电话公司已经有了这些数据。”

Attorney Michael Sussmann said the companies he represents fear they could be sued, and would have to spend more time and money to give the information to other parties.

律师迈克尔·苏斯曼说委托他的电话公司担心会被起诉，而将信息给第三方要耗费时间和资金。

"So an insurance company could issue a subpoena 2. There could be a court order in a divorce case. All the other reasons that people would want phone company records, there are that many more records for them to request," said Sussmann.

“所以保险公司会发出传票，就像离婚案中的法院命令，人们想要电话公司记录还有很多其他原因，可供他们请求以获得的记录很多。”

And the idea of moving the data to the phone companies does not satisfy critics, including Republican Senator Chuck Grassley.

将数据交给电话公司的建议并不能让批评者满意，包括共和党议员恰克·格拉斯利。

“It may create as many privacy concerns as it solves. Indeed, private companies seem to be allowing their customers’ information to be hacked 3 on what seems to be a daily basis,” said Grassley.

“这种办法能解决问题，但也能创造出一样多的隐私担忧。确实，私人公司似乎允许其顾客的信息每天都被能被窃取。”

Leslie Harris, president of Washington's Center for Democracy and Technology, said any mass collection of phone records, by government or by private industry, threatens privacy.

华盛顿民主和技术中心主席莱斯理·哈瑞斯说无论是政府还是私人公司大量收集电话记录都会威胁到隐私。

"And certainly moving that data to telephone companies or to some third party doesn't fix the concerns about risk. But if the whole focus is on where the data is held, then I think the president has missed the point," aid Harris.

“其实将数据转移到电话公司或第三方并不能解决我们对风险的担忧，但如果全部的关注点放在数据是在哪里存放的，那么我想总统没有抓住要领。”

The president is expected to adopt his advisers 4' suggestion to reduce the number of people whose records can be examined by the NSA, and reduce the number of years the data can be kept.

总统可能会采用其顾问的建议，也就是减少国安局所获得的记录的人数，并减少这些数据保留的年限。