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This website for jeans just saved a cookie onto my browser.
这个牛仔裤网站刚给我浏览器装了个Cookie。
That's it -- a string of letters and numbers that form a unique ID to help the site remember me.
就是这个由一长串字母和数字组成的唯一的，用于帮助网站记住我的ID。
The sites you visit do this too -- that's what all those pop-ups are telling you.
你访问的那些网站也会这么做，所有那些弹窗提示你的就是这个东西。
Cookies actually make our online world possible.
事实上，Cookie原本是成就网络世界的有功之臣。
But they also allow jeans to follow me around the internet.
但也是它们让牛仔裤网站得以在网上到处跟踪我的。
That's because cookies enable companies to band together to track and remember everything we do online.
这是因为是Cookie让各个公司得以联起手来跟踪并记住我们在网上的一举一动。
And they've become the center of a war for our personal data.
Cookie也成了抢夺我们个人数据的网络战争的心尖肉。
"I'm Lou Montulli. And in the summer of 1994, I was the inventor of cookies."
“我是卢·蒙图利。1994年夏天我发明了Cookie。”
In 1994, Lou was a 23-year-old working at Netscape,
那一年，年仅23岁的卢还在网景通信公司工作，
where they were building what would become the dominant web browser of the decade.
当时，他们公司正在搭建一个即将在未来十年占据主导地位的网络浏览器。
"The broad problem I was trying to solve was to bring memory to the web.
“我当时要解决的主要问题是让网络产生记忆。
Every time you look at a different page, that's to the web server a completely different visit."
每次你打开一个新的页面，对服务器来说，都是一个新增用户在访问。”
Imagine every time you add something to your cart and click away… it disappears.
试想一下，你往购物车里添加一件东西再退出网站，你添加的东西就没有了，
Or each time you load a new page on Facebook… you have to log in again.
又或者你每打开Facebook的一个新页面，就让你重新登录之类的情况。
"Would it be fair to say that the experience of the Web before cookies was a little bit like talking to Dory from Finding Nemo?"
“那是不是可以说，Cookie出现之前的上网体验就跟和《海底总动员》里的多莉说话差不多？”
"Yeah. Yeah. That Dory analogy is pretty apt here."
“嗯嗯，这个比方用在这儿还真挺贴切的。”
"See, I suffer from short term memory loss."
“看见了吧？我有短期失忆症。”
"Short term memory loss..."
“短期失忆症。”
Cookies solved that problem.
Cookie解决了网络失忆的问题。
"So if in particular you were looking for a set of blue suede shoes..."
“打个比方，你想买一双蓝色绒面的鞋……”
With each new click, the site recognizes the unique ID from the cookie stored on my browser
我每点击一次，网站都能凭借保存在我浏览器上的Cookie识别出我唯一的ID，
and retains information like: what I put in my cart, but also often my location,
并保存我的各种信息，比如我往购物车里加了什么，我的位置信息，
what else I click on, how much time I spend there, plus details I deliberately give it, like my email address.
我还浏览了什么，浏览那些商品又花了多长时间，还有我主动提供的一些细节，比如我的邮箱等。
As I browse through the site, or even leave and come back,
随着我浏览网站的各个页面，哪怕我关了它再重新打开，
the cookies they added to my browser will tell them I'm the same visitor, not a different one.
他们添加到我浏览器的Cookie都能告诉他们我是同一个访客而不是不同的访客。
"Ok. So I should see that here, right? If I reload?" "Yes."
“嗯。我是应该在这儿看对吗？我要是重新加载呢？”“是的。”
"Hey! Wow."
“出来了！哇。”
"A lot of cookies there."
“你这Cookie可真多啊。”
These are "first-party cookies" and over the last 20 years, they've allowed us to live more and more of our lives online.
这些还是“第一方Cookie”，过去20年，它们让网络生活在我们的日常生活中占据的比例越来越重了。
"It was really a great feeling to see people create things that we had never thought of."
“看到其他人研究出了我们连想都没想到的东西感觉还挺好的。”
But one of those things was a way to track us wherever we went next -- like a news website, or social media.
但他们研究出的这些东西也包括跟踪我们接下来的所有足迹，比如浏览新闻网站或是社交网站的纪录的办法。
The same year Lou invented cookies, this appeared: the first digital banner ad.
就在卢发明出了Cookie的那一年，这个东西出现了：第一条网络横幅广告。
Today, our online world runs on ads.
如今，广告已经成为网络世界的恰饭家伙了。
The buyers in this system are brands that want to sell products by placing ads in front of people who might purchase them.
网络世界里的买家就是那些想通过向潜在顾客投放广告销售产品的品牌商。
And then you have platforms and publishers with audiences of people to show ads to, like Vox.
此外还有手上掌握了观众资源的平台、发行商，比如Vox。
In between, you have middlemen dedicated to making sure the ads from the brands are delivered to the right people.
买家和平台之间还有专门确保品牌爸爸的广告精准投放到正确的用户手里的中间商。
Some companies play multiple roles.
有一些公司还会同时扮演多重角色。
Facebook and Google are the biggest players because they have huge audiences and a huge amount of information they can use to target ads to you.
Facebook和谷歌堪称是这方面的最大玩家，因为他们掌握了庞大的观众群，还掌握了能够帮助他们锁定你的海量信息。
All these companies are incentivized to gather as much information about your online behavior as possible.
所有这些企业都有激励它们尽可能多地收集有关你在线活动的信息的机制。
But Lou designed cookies to be placed and retrieved only by the site you're on so these companies are also incentivized…to collaborate.
但卢当初设计Cookie只是为了让你打开的那个网站能够给你安装Cookie追踪你，所以，这些企业也有合作的动机。
And one way they do that is with "third-party cookies."
他们这么做的办法之一便是依靠“第三方Cookie”。
Take another look at this list of cookies that shoe store gave me.
我们再来看一眼之前那个鞋子的网站给我安装的Cookie的列表。
This one, "fbp"? That’s for Facebook, which also owns Instagram.
这个“fbp”的Cookie……是Facebook的，而Instagram也是Facebook的。
And this one? That's for Google, which places ads on tons of websites, including Vox.
那这个呢？这个是谷歌的，谷歌在很多很多网站，包括Vox上都投放了广告。
Now this site can go to Facebook and Google and say, “show my ads to people you know visited my site in the last month.”
现在，这个网站就可以到Facebook和谷歌那里告诉它们，“把我的广告展示给上个月访问过我的那些人。”
And there I am.
接着，它们的广告就被甩到了我的脸上。
What Lou didn't anticipate in 1994 was that websites would eventually be full of elements hosted by third parties.
卢在1994年没有预料到的是，事情会发展到第三方提供的东西充斥所有网站的地步。
And those elements can save their own cookies on my browser.
而这些东西也能将它们自己的Cookie存到我的浏览器上。
Those cookies are created by the domain of the third party,
创建这些Cookie的第三方域
who can then access the data from the site you're on,
就能借机访问你浏览的那个网站的数据，
but also from every site you visit that uses those same third party elements.
不仅如此，它们还能借机访问你用这些第三方元素打开的所有网站。
This is tracking.
这就是追踪。
And it transformed our online world from one in which hundreds of companies knew a small amount about your online behavior,
正是这一技术将我们的网络世界从一个数百家公司都只能掌握你网络活动的一点皮毛的世界
to one in which just a few companies can know it all.
变成了一个屈指可数的几家公司就能掌握你的一举一动的世界。
Right now, this map of your activity is mostly used to serve you personalized ads.
现在，这张有关你在线活动的地图主要的用途是为你提供个性化的广告。
But once it's collected, there’s no getting it back.
但一旦这一地图被收取了，你就拿不回来了。
In the last few years, some browsers have started to block third-party cookies by default.
过去几年内，一些浏览器已经开始默认阻止第三方Cookie运行了。
Google's browser, Chrome, gives you the option if you look for it.
谷歌的浏览器Chrome就给用户提供了这个选项，如果你仔细找的话是能找到的。
This makes it more difficult for the middlemen to know that the person who shopped for apartments on one site
这样一来，中间商就很难知道在A网站上买了房子，
and bought medicine on another and looked for romance on another are all the same person.
又在B网站上买了药，还在C网站上寻找恋情的都是同一个人了。
But companies incentivized by billions in ad dollars will always find a loophole.
尽管如此，在诱人的广告费的刺激下，很多公司总有办法找出浏览器的漏洞。
They know you don't want to block first-party cookies, because then many sites wouldn't work.
他们知道你不想阻止第一方Cookie运行，因为那样会影响很多网站本身的运行。
So companies like Google and Facebook can give sites a piece of code that looks like a first party cookie,
这样一来，谷歌和Facebook等公司就可以给那些网站发送一串看起来像第一方Cookie的代码，
but then sends all the data to the third party anyway.
然后把所有数据发送给第三方。
Facebook calls their solution "Facebook Pixel." "Facebook Pixel."
Facebook给他们的方案起了个名字：Facebook Pixel（像素）。Facebook Pixel。
"You can now use both first and third party cookies with your Facebook Pixel."
“现在，有了Facebook Pixel，第一方和第三方的Cookie你就都能用了。”
"This will allow you to reach more customers and be more accurate in measurement and reporting."
“这一工具能够帮助你获取更多客户，提高计算与报表的准确性。”
"And what this reads to me as is, 'Don't worry, people can't turn this off.'"
“但我对这句话的理解就是，‘别担心，这个用户是关不掉的。’”
"Well, it makes it more difficult to turn off via third-party cookies, yes."
“是的，要想通过第三方Cookie关掉广告确实更难了，没错。”
"How do you feel about the way in which companies like Facebook have used the technology that you built?"
“Facebook他们这么用你发明的技术，你有什么感想吗？”
"I would say that the advertising-only business model has caused products to become less good than they could be."
“我想说，只为广告这种商业模式让产品变得不那么好了。”
As long as these companies have a common goal of showing you ads for things you're likely to buy,
只要这些公司的目标都是给你展示你可能会买的产品的广告，
they'll be motivated to share information with each other… about you.
他们就有理由彼此共享信息，而且是你的信息。
And some of their new methods may be even sneakier than cookies.
他们最近发明的办法有一些甚至比Cookie还要狡猾。
"I've been saying this for a long time:
“我一直都在说：
there are billions if not trillions of dollars at stake
涉及到的是几十亿美元的广告费，就算没有几万亿美元的话，
and if we want to make substantial change to the methods in which tracking and advertising is done,
如果我们想在追踪用户和投放广告的方式上做出实质性的改变的话，
it's going to have to be done at a legislative level
我们必须从立法的层面入手，
because otherwise we're just fighting a technological tit-for-tat war that will never end."
否则，我们就只是在打一场针尖对麦芒而且永远都不会结束的科技战。”
Especially because the companies best positioned to win that war are the tech giants that already have the most information about us,
更何况，最有可能打赢这场战争的公司是已经掌握了我们大部分信息，
and have the most resources to find ways to get more.
也已经掌握了获取更多信息所需的大部分资源的科技巨头。
