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.
美国硅谷的高管和投资者们承认，美国高科技行业没有意识到其网络隐私及安全记录正不断引起全球担忧，必须迅速采取行动，以防行业形象受到更大损害。
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.
这些检讨大部分针对消费者互联网巨头谷歌(Google)和Facebook。美国大规模互联网监视行为的揭露，以及对其文化优势的担忧引起了人们的强烈反对，令该行业部分知名人士饱受抨击。

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、风险资本家皮特•泰尔(Peter Thiel)说：“硅谷没有察觉到欧洲不断加剧的担忧情绪。它非常重要，而硅谷却严重低估了它。”
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.
谷歌一直处于风口浪尖，欧盟委员会(European Commission)上周在一起反垄断案中加大了对谷歌的压力，以及近期在一项“被遗忘权”裁决中迫使谷歌删除欧洲搜索服务的部分链接。
“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.”
谷歌董事长埃里克•施密特(Eric Schmidt)在谈到围绕美国科技产业的政治情绪的变化时说：“我很惊讶会变得这么快。”不过他否认硅谷未能预见到这些关切。“人们很容易指责科技公司不够敏感——我们是相当敏感的，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.”
泰尔承认Facebook在欧洲的做法有待改进：“我们当然不认为存在适用于所有情况的策略。Facebook希望能对当地的关切更加敏感。”
Marc Benioff, chief executive of Salesforce.com, 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.
Salesforce.com首席执行官马克•班尼奥夫(Marc Benioff)表示，消费者互联网公司用自己的技术强推“美国中心”观念，已经为此“付出了惨痛代价”。Salesforce.com是一家大型的基于互联网的企业服务公司。
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早期投资者和前董事会成员吉姆•布雷耶(Jim Breyer)表示，美国政府及高科技公司不得不“大大加快行动，如果他们还想重获全世界的信任”。
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.
围绕隐私和安全方面产生的强烈抵制情绪已开始在硅谷产生广泛影响。一直以来，硅谷的年轻公司争相推出新技术，没将隐私和安全当做重中之重。
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.
这一紧张局势已暴露了科技行业内的裂痕。虽然Facebook和谷歌等公司声称其业务没受到太大影响，但根据信息技术创新基金会(Information Technology and Innovation Foundation)的数据，在斯诺登事件影响下，云服务销售商未来3年预计将损失220美元到450亿美元。
“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.”
微软(Microsoft)法律总顾问布拉德•史密斯(Brad Smith)表示：“我们行业的一些人低估了人们对隐私的在意程度。我不知道硅谷的人是否都清醒地注意到了这一点。”微软正准备重新把云服务作为一项核心业务。