经济学人社论 || 数字身份证(公益翻译不易,欢迎转发)

原文:http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzU1MDQwNTgzMg==&mid=2247491626&idx=1&sn=f8534b4feb68e6c1e5548847bfcb2dbf&chksm=fba3b38dccd43a9bf91d4194383fd139d27955bd9e55d58af58aaf098c53204bf4f780b5de54#rd

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April,女,金融小白崽,边追经济学人边追星


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Time for proof

身份证明迫在眉睫

英文部分选自经济学人20200905Leaders版块

Digital ID cards

数字身份证


Time for proof

身份证明迫在眉睫


Covid-19 has strengthened the case for digital identity systems

 新冠疫情凸显了数字身份系统的必要性。


The pandemic has had few silver linings. One is that a huge range of human activities have moved online far more smoothly than almost anyone expected. Businesses have let their white-collar staff work from home for half a year now. People are attending yoga classes remotely. Brits are appearing in court digitally; New Yorkers are tying the knot online.


疫情几乎没给人们带来什么好消息,不过这倒算是一件:大量人类活动在线上进行地极为顺利,远远超过所有人的预期。到目前为止,企业已安排白领员工在家工作了半年。人们会远程上瑜伽课。英国人以线上方式出庭;纽约人则在网上喜结连理。


Yet as they migrate to the virtual world, many people are discovering that they do not have the right documents to prove their identity. Businesses use credit cards, in effect, as a rough-and-ready proof that people are who they say. Governments cannot do that. Rather than simply exchanging goods for money, they give money away and issue commands, so they need to know more about their “customers” than, say, a supermarket does. In countries without a system of secure digital identities, the closure of bricks-and-mortar government offices and the shift of public services online have caused havoc . Divorces and adoptions have run into a virtual brick wall. Italy’s system for doling out emergency payments crashed and then demanded paperwork that applicants could not obtain because government offices were shut. In America, Washington state paid $650m in unemployment insurance to fraudsters who made applications using stolen identities.


然而,迁移到虚拟世界之后,许多人却发现,他们没有恰当的证件来证明自己的身份。实际上,做生意可以把信用卡当作粗略的现成证据,证明这就是本人,而政府却不能这样做。政府并不是简单地用商品换钱,而是把钱分发出去,并下达命令。因此,相比超市这样的组织,政府更需要了解自己的顾客。在缺少安全数字身份系统的国家,随着线下政府办公处关闭,公共服务转移到线上,混乱也随之而来。线上离婚和收养办理纷纷碰壁。意大利紧急资金发放系统崩溃,于是要求申请人提供办理所需的全部文件。但由于政府部门关闭,申请人无法获得。在美国,骗子使用被盗身份申请失业救济金,华盛顿州为此损失了6.5亿美元。


 No such havoc occurred in Estonia, a tiny Baltic state where every citizen has an electronic identity. More than just an identity card, it links every Estonian’s records together. So when the government created a furlough system for workers affected by the pandemic, it already knew where they worked and how to pay them. Nobody in Estonia had to join a queue on a pavement to claim benefits, as people in other places did.


此种混乱并没有出现在爱沙尼亚。在这个波罗的海小国,每位公民都拥有电子身份证明。它不仅仅是一张身份证,还可以将所有爱沙尼亚人的记录都连接在一起。因此在为饱受疫情冲击的工人打造带薪休假系统时,爱沙尼亚政府已经掌握了他们的工作场所和接收补助的渠道。在该国,没有任何人需要像其他国家的公民一样在路边排队领取救济金。


Other countries, such as Britain and America, have long resisted introducing a national identity system. Some fear that it would make it too easy for the government to spy on people, or would be too easy to hack, or would simply be botched by incompetent bureaucrats. Feelings run high. Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister, once vowed that if he had to carry an id card and a bossy official demanded to see it, he would “physically eat it”.


其他国家,比如英国和美国,一直拒绝建立全国身份证明系统。有人担心,有了这样的系统,政府可以轻而易举地监视民众,或者该系统不是容易受到黑客攻击,就是会被办事不利的官员搞砸。民众的反对情绪十分强烈。英国首相鲍里斯·约翰逊曾表示,如果要求他随身携带身份证,盛气凌人的官员还要求他出示的话,他就真的把它吃了


However, the pandemic has strengthened the case for a digital id. It would not only make it quicker and easier to access government services remotely. It would also make track-and-trace systems more effective. If, in an emergency such as the pandemic, health data were linked to work data, governments could quickly spot when a cluster of covid patients all happened to work at the same factory.


疫情凸显了电子身份证明的必要性。有了它,通过远程方式获取政府服务将变得更加快捷容易,追踪系统也将变得更加有效。如果健康数据和就业数据早已打通,那么紧急情况下,比如流行病肆虐之际,如果出现聚集性新冠病例,政府可以很快发现这些病例都来自同一家工厂。


Worries about privacy and security can be allayed, albeit imperfectly. Estonians, who learned a healthy suspicion of Big Brother during five decades under the Soviet boot, are broadly reassured by a data-protection law and continually updated anti-hacking safeguards that include two-factor authentication. Similarly, laws can be passed to stop police from demanding to see people’s id cards. Autocratic regimes will abuse id systems, of course, but democratic governments can be constrained. Estonia’s system records every time a piece of data is viewed, and it is a crime for anyone, including officials, to access private information without good cause. That is a good model.


尽管民众对隐私和安全的担忧不能完全消除,但至少可以得到缓解。被苏联统治了50年,爱沙尼亚人对老大哥有所怀疑是正常的,但数据保护法和包括双重认证在内的不断更新的反黑客保障措施,让他们大体上放心。同样,可以通过法律禁止警察查看人们的身份证。当然,专制政权会滥用身份制度,但民主政府可以受到约束。每次数据被查看,爱沙尼亚的系统都会加以记录。就算是官员,如果没有正当理由访问私人信息都属犯罪。这是不错的模式。


Creating a digital id system is hard and expensive. Yet India, a gigantic and largely poor country, has managed it. Its “Aadhaar” biometric system has created digital identities for 1.3bn people. It has flaws: many Indians who were unable to register have suffered gravely from not being able to access services. But it has streamlined government services and massively reduced fraud. If rural Indians can prove who they are online, it is scandalous that many Brits and Americans cannot.


建立一个数字身份系统既困难又昂贵。然而,贫穷的人口大国——印度却做到了这一点。印度的“ Aadhaar”生物识别系统为13亿人创建了数字身份。它的确有缺陷: 许多无法登记的印度人因无法获得服务而遭受严重的痛苦。但是它精简了政府服务,大大减少了欺诈行为。如果印度的乡下人都能在线上证明自己的身份,而很多英国人和美国人却不能,这简直是丑闻一桩。


Digital id systems can be introduced gradually, building on pre-existing platforms. They do not have to be compulsory. If they are reasonably safe and reduce the hassle of dealing with the state, people will willingly sign up for them.


数字身份系统可以逐步引入到现有的平台上。它不一定是强制性的。如果它还算安全,并且减少了与政府打交道的麻烦,人们会愿意注册。


翻译组:

Miranda,女,翻译在读,爱哭又爱笑的00
Jessie, 女 ,旅游业转行口译,喜欢教书与读书

Cecilia,女,一口一笔,无可救药的乐观主义者


校对组:

Neil,  男,外贸民工,经济学人铁粉

Yo,女,种下过流星,立志不做大鸵鸟

Hannah,女,英语教书匠,经济学人粉丝

Desmond,男,即将读研,悬疑剧、恐怖片和三国杀爱好者

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观点|评论|思考


本次感想

VeRy,男,电气民工,经济学人资浅爱好者

有些事情,有些东西,往往都只能在一定的范围内可行,这个范围不仅指的是概念上的,也往往包括物理层面。不同地区的人皆有不同的风俗,对待事物的看法也不尽相同,但这其中最关键的却是一些起到支柱作用的理念,譬如有些地方把“集体”的利益看得最重,而有些地方则置个人权利于最高处。这个观念的形成固然受到历史和文化的作用,也和当局的管理理念颇有干系。

就拿文中的数字身份证来说,如果是某些习惯了到任何地方都要检查你实体身份证的环境,那数字化只会更加方便,虽然旁人,如鲍中堂般很可能会饱到打嗝,但是对于身处其中的人而言,这反而是件好事。但如果是那些“一生不羁放纵爱自由”的人,则不免会产生矛盾,而且这种矛盾是无法调和的,因为是理念上的区别,除非是塑形过了好几代人之后,才有可能变为现实。 

对于一个在黑暗中呆了太久的人,哪怕是一丝微弱的烛光,都能让其欣喜不已,但是习惯了整天沐浴在阳光下的孩子,无论如何是无法接受夜晚昏暗的灯火(其实都是矫情,所以我向来赞成严酷教育,温室呆太久了以为一切都是天然赐予,必然可得的,殊不知温室也是靠祖辈一砖一瓦搭建起来)。

但我会再想得深一点,既然数字身份证子民们可以接受,那么在不远将来的数字大脑呢(马斯克直呼内行)?所有人必须换成数字大脑,这样掌握你这小脑袋里面想些什么还不是易如反掌?我不确定到时候那些善良温顺的韭菜们是否就范,但是就算不肯你又能怎样呢?

这个场景是否很是熟悉?我们的尼奥又在哪里?

反抗终会来到,无论敌人有多么强大!


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