Enough“meaningless drivel”. That’s the message from a group of members of the UK government who have been examining how social media firms like LinkedIn gather and use social media data.
够了，这些“毫无意义的废话”。这是一群英国政府成员传达的信息，他们一直在研究LinkedIn等社交媒体公司如何收集和使用社交媒体数据。

The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee’s report, released last week, has blamed firms for making people sign up to long incomprehensible legal contracts and calls for an international standard or kitemark(认证标记) to identify sites that have clear terms and conditions.
下议院科学和技术委员会上周发布的报告，指责公司让人们签署长篇且难以理解的法律合同，并呼吁制定一个国际标准或认证标记，以识别那些拥有清晰条款和条件的网站。

“The terms and conditions statement that we all carelessly agree to is meaningless drivel toanyone,”says Andrew Miller, the chair of the committee. Instead, he says, firms should provide a plain-English version of their terms. The simplified version would be checked by a third party and awarded a kitemark if it is an accurate reflection of the original.
“我们都漫不经心地同意的条款和条件声明，对任何人来说都是毫无意义的废话，”委员会主席安德鲁·米勒说。相反，他认为公司应该提供一个英文简明版的条款。这个简化版本将由第三方检查，如果它是原始版本的准确反映，将被授予一个认证标记。

It is not yet clear who would administer the scheme, but the UK government is looking at introducing it on a voluntary basis.“We need to think through how we make that work in practice,”says Miller.
目前尚不清楚谁将管理这个计划，但英国政府正在考虑在自愿基础上引入它。“我们需要考虑如何使这在实践中发挥作用，”米勒说。

Would we pay any more attention to a kitemark?“I think if you went and did the survey, people would like to think they would,”says Nigel Shadbolt at the University of Southampton, UK, who studies open data.“We do know people worry a lot about the inappropriate use of their information.”But what would happen in practice is another matter, he says.
我们是否会对一个认证标记更加关注？“我认为如果你去做调查，人们可能会认为他们会，”英国南安普顿大学研究开放数据的奈杰尔·沙德博尔特说。“我们知道人们非常担心他们的信息被不当使用。”但他说，实际情况是另一回事。

Once organisations such as banks ask customers to sign long contracts they may not read or understand, but Miller believes social media requires special attention because it is so new.“We still don’t know how significant the long-term impact is going to be of unwise things that kids put on social media that come back and bite them in 20 years’ time,” he says.
一旦像银行这样的组织要求客户签署他们可能不会阅读或理解的长篇合同，但米勒认为社交媒体需要特别关注，因为它是如此新颖。“我们仍然不知道孩子们在社交媒体上不明智地发布的东西在20年后回来咬他们时的长期影响会有多大，”他说。

Shadbolt, who gave evidence to the committee, says the problem is that we don’t know how companies will use our data because their business models and uses of data are still evolving. Large collections of personal information have become valuable only recently, he says.
沙德博尔特向委员会提供了证据，他说问题是我们不知道公司将如何使用我们的数据，因为他们的商业模式和数据用途仍在发展中。他说，大量个人信息最近才变得有价值。

The shock and anger when a social media firm does something with data that people don’t expect, even if users have apparently given permission, show that the current situation isn’t working. If properly administered, a kitemark on terms and conditions could help people know what exactly they are signing up to. Although they would still have to actually read them.
当一个社交媒体公司做了一些人们意想不到的事情，即使用户显然已经给予了许可，也会引起震惊和愤怒，这表明当前的情况行不通。如果得到妥善管理，条款和条件上的认证标记可以帮助人们知道他们到底在签署什么。尽管他们仍然需要实际阅读它们。

1. What does the phrase“meaningless drivel”in paragraphs 1 and 3 refer to?
   A. Legal contracts that social media firms make people sign up to.
   B. Warnings from the UK government against unsafe websites.
   C. Guidelines on how to use social media websites properly.
   D. Insignificant data collected by social media firms.
   答案：A

2. It can be inferred from the passage that Nigel Shadbolt doubts whether _.
   A. social media firms would conduct a survey on the kitemark scheme
   B. people would pay as much attention to a kitemark as they think
   C. a kitemark scheme would be workable on a nationwide scale
   D. the kitemark would help companies develop their business models
   答案：B

3. Andrew Miller thinks social media needs more attention than banks mainly because _.
   A. their users consist largely of kids under 20 years old
   B. the language in their contracts is usually harder to understand
   C. the information they collected could become more valuable in future
   D. it remains unknown how users’ data will be taken advantage of
   答案：D

4. The writer advises users of social media to _.
   A. think carefully before posting anything onto such websites
   B. read the terms and conditions even if there is a kitemark
   C. take no further action if they can find a kitemark
   D. avoid providing too much personal information
   答案：B

5. Which of the following is the best title of the passage?
   A. Say no to social media? B. New security rules in operation!
   C. Accept without reading? D. Administration matters!
   答案：C