科技英语新闻：谷歌董事长承诺实行隐私控制

Google chairman Eric Schmidt has promised that the firm will simplify the process by which Android phone users agree to share their data.
It follows questions in the US Senate about how much location information is stored by mobile handsets.

Speaking in the UK at a conference on privacy, he also revealed that Google plans to offer web users more control over their online profile.
Mr Schmidt insisted that the company took the matter "very seriously".

He told attendees at the Big Tent debate in Hertfordshire that his firm was working on "a series of projects" aimed at increasing transparency.
Those include a revised Google Dashboard, where users can see what data they have shared with the search giant.

"It is worth stressing that we can only do this with data you have shared with Google. We can't be a vacuum-cleaner for the whole internet," he said.
Mr Schmidt stressed that Google was on the side of consumers when it came to privacy. "In general we take the position that you own your data and should be able to opt in or out of a service," he said.

But he added that if users gave consent for sharing data, it would help Google improve its services.
"If you choose to give us that information we can do a better job. If we know a little bit more about you we can offer better targeted search," he explained.

Super injunctions revealed
A recent hearing in the US Senate quizzed Google on the amount of data stored on Android handsets. The company argued that it allows people to opt out of location-based services.

But Mr Schmidt conceded that the terms and conditions whereby users sign up to services needs to be simplified. "We intent to do that," he said.
He predicted that such services would be more heavily regulated in the future.

During a lively debate on the issue of privacy, it was revealed to the Big Tent audience, alongside several names of current super-injunction holders, that more data has been collected in the last seven years than in the whole of previous human history.