单选题
Whatever you think of Edward Snowden and his revelations about the National Security Agency"s alleged monitoring of the Internet, one thing is beyond debate: His disclosures have ignited a global conversation about privacy in the online age. And a new report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation suggests that he spurred the tech industry to take newly aggressive measures to defend their users against inappropriate government intrusions.
A company which satisfied all the EFF assessment would get a six-star rating. The EFF"s analysis of its data notes the turnaround and credits Snowden for nudging the industry in the right direction:
This year, we saw major improvements in industry standards for informing users about government data requests, publishing transparency reports. For the first time in our four years of reports, every company we reviewed earned credit. This is a significant improvement over our original report in 2011, when none received any stars.
These changes in policy were likely a reaction to the releases of the last year, which repeatedly pointed to a close relationship between tech companies and the National Security Agency. Tech companies have had to work to regain the trust of users concerned that the US government was accessing data they stored in the cloud. This seems to be one of the legacies of the Snowden disclosures: the new transparency has prompted significant policy reforms by major tech companies.
There"s still plenty to concern in the report. This particular study covers only protection from governmental spying; you can applaud Google and Facebook for their high scores here while still having questions about what they"re doing with your data for purposes such as targeting advertising.
Still, when Snowden blew his whistle, numerous tech executives expressed outrage over what he revealed and said they"d put new measures in place to safeguard their customers. It"s good to get this confirmation from the realistic privacy advocates at the EFF that so many of them lived up to their word—and I"m already curious what next year"s report will look like.
单选题
What contributions does Edward Snowden make according to Electronic Frontier Foundation?
单选题
What did last year"s report of EFF intensively reveal?
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] 根据题干关键词last year"s report of EFF定位到第四段第一句。这些政策上的变化有可能是针对去年所发布报告的一个反应，去年的报告中反复暗示科技公司与国家安全局之间的密切关系。可知，去年的报告中揭示了科技公司与政府间的紧密联系。故答案为C项。选项中intimate connections是对原文close relationship的同义转述。
单选题
What could be the possible meaning of "legacies" mentioned in the last sentence of Paragraph 4?
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 根据题干关键词“legacies”, the last sentence of Paragraph 4定位到第四段最后一句。前一句提到科技公司不得不努力重新获得用户的信任，因为用户担心美国政府获得他们储存在云端的信息。由此可推测本句会具体说明斯诺登揭露产生的结果之一就是这种新的透明促使大型科技公司进行重大的政策改革，故legacies在此处表达的意思应为“结果，后果”，故答案为A项。
单选题
What is still questioned even under protection from government spying?
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] 根据题干关键词questioned, protection from government spying定位到第五段第二句。该句提到，这项研究只涵盖了防止来自政府的窥视；我们可以为谷歌和Facebook获得的高分而鼓掌，同时也对其用个人信息进行诸如目标推销之类的目的而存在疑虑。由此可知，大的科技公司也有可能会同样滥用用户的数据。故答案为C项。
单选题
What is the author"s attitude towards Internet privacy protection?