Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Square, GoDaddy, Tesco, Sainsbury's, H&M, and many more are updating their policies to give consumers more control over their personal data.

谷歌、臉書、推特、亞馬遜、史威爾、 GoDaddy、特易購、森寶利、H&M 等，越來越多企業都開始更新他們的隱私權政策，還給消費者更多個資的掌控權。

Those updates and changes are thanks to a new law governing data privacy called the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.

這些隱私權政策更新要歸功於掌管資料隱私權，稱為通用資料保護規則 (GDPR) 的新法規。

The catch is, GDPR only applies to people who live in the European Union.. but its adoption is largely expected to have Americans asking “Why don't we have that?”

不過其中有蹊蹺，因為 GDPR 法規雖只適用居住在歐盟國家的人民，然而正式通過後，大多數的美國人也會開始要求「我們也要這樣的法規！」

Here's how data collection currently works -- when you sign up for, let's say Facebook, you have to click a box agreeing to the companies terms.

讓我們了解一下目前資料蒐集的方式 --- 若你要登錄至，例如臉書，必須勾選同意該公司條款的方塊。

Those terms give Facebook the right to track your online activities, even if you're not actively browsing facebook.

這些條款會授予臉書追蹤你線上活動的權限，即使你並未主動瀏覽，臉書也會追蹤你。

Facebook can let third parties access it in order to sell ads and services.

臉書可允許第三方存取，以便販售廣告和服務。

GDPR is changing that.

而 GDPR 正在改變這個情形。

Consumers will have the right to ask for copies of anything as basic as messages sent to them, or by them…

消費者將可具有要求將最基本的，例如訊息寄送副本給本人。

That's Bloomberg Tech Editor Nate Lanxon.

彭博科技新聞編輯奈特連克森提到。

...up to entire archives of all the content they've generated on a service.

還包含所有使用者因使用服務而產生的內容封存檔。

Come May 25 companies with more than 250 employees and that hold data on European citizens will have to get "unambiguous" consent from users to collect their data, instead of just burying an OK inside fine print.

自 5 月 25 日起，員工數量超過 250 名且擁有歐盟國家市民的資料的公司皆必須取得使用者「明確」的同意方可蒐集資料，而非在「確定」後方暗藏許多法律條文細則。

It will also make it much easier to revoke consent users had previously given.

這有助於方便使用者將先前授予的同意撤回。

For consumers that opt in, they have a right to know what's being done with their data and instead of being charged to obtain it, can request a free copy.

對於消費者而言，他們有權利知道自己的資料會用在那些用途，並可要求免費提供副本，而非需付費才得到。

For companies like Google and Facebook, they've been making data available for download and deletion upon request for quite some time.

部分公司例如谷歌和臉書，都已提供可下載資料，以及依使用者要求刪除某段期間內的資料。

Consumers also have the "right to be forgotten," which lets citizens request that organizations delete their data.

使用者也擁有「被遺忘的權利」，可以向大公司要求刪除個資。

Data Portability will give consumers the right to retrieve their data and sell it to other companies.

資料相容性將賦予消費者取得個人資料並將資料販售給其他公司的權利。

So, for example, you may be able to trade something like a gift certificate from Zara in exchange for your shopping history at J Crew.

例如，您可以用您的 J Crew 購物交易歷史交換例如Zara 的禮物卡。

If a firm has a data breach, companies must notify the authorities within 72 hours.

若公司發現有個資外洩的情形，必須在72小時內通報管轄機關。

And any failure to comply with this new law will be costly.

違反此法律的企業將在金錢方面付出極大的代價。

Penalty fines can abe as high as 4 percent of a company's global annual revenue.

罰款可能高達一間公司全球年收益的 4%。

Europe expects companies to try and act within the spirit of the law, and not just try to follow it to the letter.

歐盟國家政府希望企業都能盡力配合新法令，而非只是做做表面功夫。

This mean there will be disputes and legal precedence to be set over the coming years.

換言之，可預見新法生效後的往後數年將會出現不少爭議和法律優先權的議題出現。

So while the US is still reeling over Facebook and the Cambridge Analytica scandal -- The EU is moving ahead with tough new rules.

在美國還在遲遲未能判定臉書和劍橋分析公司醜聞事件的同時，歐盟早已率先一步實施嚴格的新法規。

Many will ask if the US should be next.

美國是否會是下一個跟進的國家呢？