达沃斯论坛热议科技巨头公信力问题

Large technology companies will experience the samecollapse in reputation as banks have endured inrecent years unless they rapidly change their policyapproach, business leaders have cautioned.

大型科技公司恐将重蹈银行近年来的覆辙，遭遇声誉危机，除非他们迅速改变经营策略，商业领袖警告称。

Their warning was directed at the influential headsof technology companies, such as those in SiliconValley, who were told they needed to recognise thatself-regulation would not be sufficient to stave offpublic alarm about issues such as privacy.

他们的警告针对有影响力的科技公司负责人，如硅谷的企业家们。他们指出，这些企业家需要承认，自律措施不足以避免公众对隐私等问题的恐慌。

 

 

“Self-regulation, no matter what you do, is just not going to be good enough [for techcompanies],” said Paul Achleitner, chairman of the supervisory board of Deutsche Bank.Addressing the Davos economic forum, he pointed out that a self-regulatory approach hadbeen previously employed by banks — but notably failed to quell the political backlash againsttheir over-reach.

“不管你做什么，自律(对科技公司来说)都将是不够完善的，”德意志银行(Deutsche Bank)监事会主席保罗•阿赫莱特纳(Paul Achleitner)说。他在达沃斯经济论坛的演讲中指出，自律方式先前已被银行所采用——但很明显这未能平息政治上对银行过度行为的强烈反对。

His comments come as opposition grows, particularly in Europe, to the cultural dominance ofUS tech giants such as Google and Facebook, fuelled by concerns about widespread USinternet surveillance and corporate tax avoidance.

他发表此番言论之时，反对美国科技巨头如谷歌(Google)和Facebook文化主导权的声音正在增加，尤其是在欧洲。对无所不在的美国互联网监控以及企业避税的担忧助长了这些反对声音。

Google became a target last month for the European Parliament, which backed a motion callingon regulators to consider breaking up the company. The European Commission has alsoreopened an antitrust probe into the search giant. Uber, the taxi app company, has also facedprotests from incumbent groups across Europe.

谷歌上个月成为欧洲议会(European Parliament)的目标，后者支持一项呼吁监管机构考虑分拆该公司的议案。欧盟委员会(European Commission)也重新启动了针对这家搜索巨头的反垄断调查。出租车应用公司优步(Uber)则面临来自欧洲各地传统企业的抗议。

“Never assume that because something has been common practice [in the past] it will not bejudged harshly in the future,” Mr Achleitner said. He argued that just as bankers had beensurprised by the speed at which political attitudes towards them had changed during the 20thcentury financial revolution, tech leaders could be shocked by a similar shift in the “technologyrevolution” of the 21st century.

阿赫莱特纳说，“永远不要因为某些事情(在过去)已经成为惯例，就以为它不会在未来受到尖锐的批评。”他认为，正如在20世纪金融革命中银行家惊讶于政治态度的快速改变，科技业领袖也会在21世纪的“技术革命”中被类似的转变所震惊。

Fadi Chehadé, president of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, themain entity that organises web domains, said that the collapse of trust in technologycompanies could be “just as big” as it had been for banks. “It’s real [as a threat],” he said,adding that most tech leaders had been far too complacent about the reputational risks.

互联网名称与数字地址分配机构(ICANN)总裁法迪·切哈德(Fadi Chehadé)表示，对科技公司信任的崩塌可能与银行的遭遇“一样严重”。“这是真实的(作为一种威胁)，”他说，大多数科技公司负责人都对声誉风险过于自满。

The comments are striking because in recent years the level of trust in technology companieshas been extraordinarily high, relative to banks.

由于近年来对科技公司的信任程度相对于银行已经处于相当高的水平，所以这些评论颇为引人注目。