2004山大考博英語回憶

Questions 36 to 40 are based on the followingpassage.
When we worry about who might be spying onour private lives, we usually think about the Federal agents. But the privatesector outdoes the government every time. It’s Linda Tripp, not the FBI, who isfacing charges under Maryland’s laws against secret telephone taping. It’s ourbanks, not the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), that pass our private financialdata to telemarketing firms.
Consumer activists are pressing Congress forbetter privacy laws without much result so far. The legislators lean towardletting business people track our financial habits virtually at will.
As an example of what’s going on, considerU.S. Bancorp, which was recently sued for deceptive practices by the state ofMinnesota. According to the lawsuit, the bank supplied a telemarketer calledMember Works with sensitive customer data such as names, phone numbers,bank-account and credit-card numbers, Social Security numbers, account balancesand credit limits.
With these customer lists in hand, MemberWorks started dialing for dollars-selling dental plans, videogames, computersoftware and other products and services. Customers who accepted a “free trialoffer” had 30 days to cancel. If the deadline passed, they were chargedautomatically through their bank or credit-card accounts. U.S. Bancorpcollected a share of the revenues.
Customers were doubly deceived, the lawsuitclaims. They, didn’t know that the bank was giving account numbers toMemberWorks. And if customers asked, they were led to think the answer was no.
The state sued MemberWorks separately fordeceptive selling. The company denies that it did anything wrong. For its part,U.S. Bancorp settled without admitting any mistakes. But it agreed to stopexposing its customers to nonfinancial products sold by outside firms. A fewtop banks decided to do the same. Many other banks will still do business withMemberWorks and similar firms.
And banks will still be mining data from youraccount in order to sell you financial products, including things of littlevalue, such as credit insurance and credit-card protection plans.
You have almost no protection from businessesthat use your personal accounts for profit. For example, no federal law shields“transaction and experience” information-mainly the details of your bank andcredit-card accounts. Social Security numbers are for sale by private firms.They’ve generally agreed not to sell to the public. But to businesses, thenumbers are an open book. Self-regulation doesn’t work. A firm might publish aprivacy-protection policy, but who enforces it?