Question

    People often feel anonymous (匿名) on the Internet. They believe their browsing behaviors and what they buy or write can be private as they want. In fact, that’s far from true, a new study finds.

Websites usually offer a statement that describes what they may or may not do with data about a user’s activities. You might be attracted to read through that entire document. But be prepared for disappointment. These documents tend to list only a small part of the websites which are allowed to have access to your data. Therefore, it’s impossible for users to make informed judgments about how private their online activities are.

The new research explored the disclosure on data-sharing by 200, 000 websites. These included the Arkansas state government homepage and the Country Music site. The study analyzed how these sites shared data with third parties. Such recipients of your data could be advertisers or companies that make money by selling personal data. The study also examined how those sites had described their policy for protecting the data privacy.

Timothy Libert, who works at Oxford University, studies data privacy. For this analysis, he used a software tool called webXray. It tracked 1.8 million data shared by each of those websites with third-party data collectors. Only 14.8% of those data went to third parties that were named in the sites privacy policies.

Data that were transferred to widely familiar third parties—Google, Facebook and Twitter—were more likely to be leaked than those were transferred to unknown parties. Libert found that 38.3% of data sent to Google had been leaked.

Even if a website listed all of the third parties it shared your data with, users still might never learn how widely their data had been shared. Why? Third parties that receive data can later share those data again. Think of your data now being transmitted to anonymous fourth and fifth parties. Getting online is “sort of like throwing beans in the air,” Libert concludes. “There’s no way to know where your data end up.”

1.What aspect of the websites statements will disappoint people?

A. The length of the documents. B. The reliability of the information.

C. The readability of the contents. D. The accuracy of the language.

2.What does the underlined word “disclosure” in paragraph 3 probably mean?

A. Reveal. B. Money.

C. Disappointment. D. Advertisement.

3.What did Libert find in his study?

A. More than a quarter of data-sharing went to unnamed third parties.

B. The data on the Internet is always kept secret by third parties.

C. Widely familiar third parties could collect users’ data more difficultly.

D. Widely familiar third parties were more likely to leak out users’ online data.

4.What is the best title for the text?

A. Famous websites are no longer safe

B. Private data can no longer be private

C. Data-sharing is becoming very unpopular

D. Large companies make money by selling personal data

Answer

1.B

2.A

3.D

4.B

【解析】

本文为说明文。人们在网上常常觉得自己是匿名的。他们相信他们的浏览行为和他们购买或写的东西可以是他们想要的隐私。事实上，一项新的研究发现，事实远非如此。

1.推理判断题。根据第二段中的Websites usually offer a statement that describes what they may or may not do with data about a user’s activities.（网站通常会提供一份声明，说明他们可以或不可以处理用户活动的数据）及But be prepared for disappointment. These documents tend to list only a small part of the websites which are allowed to have access to your data.（但要做好失望的准备。这些文档往往只列出允许访问您的数据的一小部分网站）可推知，网站声明信息的可靠性会让人们失望。故B选项正确。

2.词义猜测题。根据划线词后的data-sharing by 200, 000 websites（20万个网站数据共享）可知，划线词所在句句意为“这项新研究探索了20万个网站数据共享的披露情况。” A. Reveal披露；B. Money钱；C. Disappointment.失望；D. Advertisement广告。故A选项正确。

3.细节理解题。根据倒数第二段中的Data that were transferred to widely familiar third parties—Google, Facebook and Twitter—were more likely to be leaked than those were transferred to unknown parties.（被转移到广为人知的第三方——谷歌、面谱和推特——的数据比被转移到未知方的数据更容易被泄露）可知，广泛熟悉的第三方更有可能泄露用户的在线数据。故D选项正确。

4.标题判断题。通读全文可知，人们在网上常常觉得自己是匿名的。他们相信他们的浏览行为和他们购买或写的东西可以是他们想要的隐私。事实上，一项新的研究发现，事实远非如此。因此，B项“私人数据不再是私有的”适合做本文最佳标题。故B选项正确。