The shocking police crackdown on protestors in Ferguson, Missouri, in the wake of the police shooting of Michael Brown,
在密苏里州弗格森的一场令人震惊的对抗议者的镇压中，警察开枪射杀了迈克尔·布朗，
underscored the extent to which advanced military weapons and equipment, designed for the battlefield,
揭示了为作战而设计的军用高级武器，
are making their way to small-town police departments across the United States.
正向全美国镇级警署渗透。
Although much tougher to observe, this same thing is happening with surveillance equipment.
虽然更加不易察觉，但军用监控设备也以同样方式来到了我们身边。
NSA-style mass surveillance is enabling local police departments
美国国家安全局形制的大型监控系统，让本地警察局
to gather vast quantities of sensitive information about each and every one of us in a way that was never previously possible.
能够收集超大量的个人敏感信息，这是前所未有的。
Location information can be very sensitive.
位置信息可以是非常敏感的。
If you drive your car around the United States, it can reveal if you go to a therapist, attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting,
如果你在美国范围内开车，它能显示你是去看医生，还是去参加匿名酗酒者会议，
if you go to church or if you don't go to church.
去教堂，或者没去教堂。
And when that information about you is combined with the same information about everyone else,
如果将你的信息和其他人的同类信息相结合，
the government can gain a detailed portrait of how private citizens interact.
政府就能详细地描绘出公民间的私人关系。
This information used to be private.
这样的信息曾经是私密的。
Thanks to modern technology, the government knows far too much about what happens behind closed doors.
而因为现代科技，政府对家务事也知道的太多了。
And local police departments make decisions about who they think you are based on this information.
地方警察局能根据这些信息，对你的为人做出“官方”判断。
One of the key technologies driving mass location tracking is the innocuous-sounding Automatic License Plate Reader.
方位跟踪最常用的，是一种利用无害声波自动抓拍车牌的技术。
If you haven't seen one, it's probably because you didn't know what to look for -- they're everywhere.
如果你没见过这种监控，很可能是因为你不知道怎么去找，它无处不在。
Mounted on roads or on police cars,
有的装在马路上方，有的在警车上，
Automatic License Plate Readers capture images of every passing car and convert the license plate into machine-readable text
自动抓拍车牌相机会拍下经过的每一辆车，然后把汽车牌照转换成可机读的文字，
so that they can be checked against hot lists of cars potentially wanted for wrongdoing.
这样就可以对照着黑名单查出可疑车辆。
But more than that, increasingly, local police departments are keeping records not just of people wanted for wrongdoing,
不仅如此，现在日益增多的情况是，地方警察局不仅会查可疑车辆，
but of every plate that passes them by, resulting in the collection of mass quantities of data about where Americans have gone.
而是只要有车经过都查，收集每一个美国人的大量信息，了解他们的动态。
Did you know this was happening?
这件事你知道吗？
When Mike Katz-Lacabe asked his local police department for information about the plate reader data they had on him,
当迈克·卡茨拉卡德向当地警局询问他的拍照记录，
this is what they got: in addition to the date, time and location,
这是他得到的结果：除了日期，时间和地点，
the police department had photographs that captured where he was going and often who he was with.
还有各种监控照片，显示他经常去哪、和谁在一起。
The second photo from the top is a picture of Mike and his two daughters getting out of their car in their own driveway.
上边数下来第二张照片是迈克和他的两个女儿在家门前一起下车的照片。
The government has hundreds of photos like this about Mike going about his daily life.
政府有几百张这样的照片，能知道迈克每天的行踪。
And if you drive a car in the United States,
如果你也在美国境内开车，
I would bet money that they have photographs like this of you going about your daily life.
我打赌他们也有关于你的各种生活照。

Mike hasn't done anything wrong. Why is it okay that the government is keeping all of this information?
迈克没做过任何错事。为什么政府可以这样收集他的信息？
The reason it's happening is because, as the cost of storing this data has plummeted,
原因就是，由于储存信息的成本迅速下降，
the police departments simply hang on to it, just in case it could be useful someday.
警局就紧紧抓住它不放，以防有朝一日能用上。
The issue is not just that one police department is gathering this information in isolation
但问题是暗中搜集信息的不是只有一家警局单干，
or even that multiple police departments are doing it.
或者只有几家各干各的。
At the same time, the federal government is collecting all of these individual pots of data,
与此同时，政府也在将这数以亿计的各种个人信息，
and pooling them together into one vast database with hundreds of millions of hits, showing where Americans have traveled.
都收录到一个统一的数据库中，跟踪美国人都去过哪里。
This document from the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration, which is one of the agencies primarily interested in this,
联邦缉毒局的这个文件是缉毒局的主要关注点之一，
is one of several that reveal the existence of this database.
证明了这样的数据库的存在。
Meanwhile, in New York City, the NYPD has driven police cars equipped with license plate readers
同时，在纽约市，纽约市警局派出装有摄像头的警车，
past mosques in order to figure out who is attending.
开过清真寺，看有谁在里面。
The uses and abuses of this technology aren't limited to the United States.
不是只有美国在滥用这项技术。
In the U.K., the police department put 80-year-old John Kat on a plate reader watch list
在英国，警察局把80岁的约翰·凯特加入了黑名单，
after he had attended dozens of lawful political demonstrations where he liked to sit on a bench and sketch the attendees.
因为他出现在很多次合法的政治游行当中，坐在一旁的长椅上，为游行者画素描。
License plate readers aren't the only mass location tracking technology available to law enforcement agents today.
自动抓拍相机可不是执法机构唯一使用的跟踪技术。
Through a technique known as a cell tower dump,
通过基站定位技术，
law enforcement agents can uncover who was using one or more cell towers at a particular time,
执法机构能够知道谁在某一时刻正在使用哪些个基站，
a technique which has been known to reveal the location of tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of people.
这项技术能用来确定几万甚至几十万人的位置。
Also, using a device known as a StingRay,
另外还有一种设备叫做“魟鱼”（即“IMSI捕手”）
law enforcement agents can send tracking signals inside people's houses to identify the cell phones located there.
执法机关能够在人们家里发送跟踪信号，来确定家里都有哪些手机在工作。
And if they don't know which house to target, they've been known to drive this technology around through whole neighborhoods.
如果他们没有明确的目标，据说就会让这个设备在住宅区全部运行一遍。
Just as the police in Ferguson possess high-tech military weapons and equipment,
就像弗格森的警察配备了高科技军用武器，
so too do police departments across the United States possess high-tech surveillance gear.
全美国的警察也都配备了高科技的监控设备。
Just because you don't see it, doesn't mean it's not there.
你看不到（那些监控）不代表它们就不存在。
The question is, what should we do about this?
问题是，我们应对此该做些什么？
I think this poses a serious civil liberties threat.
我认为已这严重威胁到了公民的自由。
History has shown that once the police have massive quantities of data, tracking the movements of innocent people,
历史表明，一旦警察有足够大量的数据，跟踪无辜民众的行踪，
it gets abused, maybe for blackmail, maybe for political advantage, or maybe for simple voyeurism.
数据就会被滥用，可能用于勒索、政治获利，抑或是单纯的偷窥。
Fortunately, there are steps we can take.
所幸的是，我们还是能采取一些措施。
Local police departments can be governed by the city councils,
地方警察局由市议会管理，
which can pass laws requiring the police to dispose of the data about innocent people
议会可以通过法律，要求警察销毁无罪民众的数据，
while allowing the legitimate uses of the technology to go forward. Thank you.
同时允许进一步的合法使用这些科技。谢谢。