How Secure Is Your Organization’s Translation Process?

• Companies are going global and to connect with audiences from different parts of the world, more and more companies are translating their content.
• However, when confidential data is shared with translating services, organizations must consider a number of things to ensure security.

The backdrop

Free translation services that are available online usually store the text entered to use machine learning to improve accuracy. How the service stores this text decides a lot of things. If confidential documents are translated online, and the data is not secured properly by the translation service, the documents may be accessed by unauthorized third-parties.

The initial step to ensure security in the translation process is to review your current process and work on identifying the security gaps. Here are a couple of things you may want to consider.

Consider drawing up a translation policy

Some employees may not even be aware of the risks the translation process may pose. The policy must first focus on raising awareness.

• The policy can specify what and what not employees can translate using free tools available online.
• However, this is quite tricky to implement because if an email or document is in a different language, employees may need to translate to even find out if it is confidential or not.
• This means the policy should strictly specify how confidential information is shared and the alternate tools employees can use.
• Some businesses opt to create their own machine learning engines. But this is a huge investment and not every organization may be able to afford it.

Look for a professional translation service provider

Invest in a professional translation service so employees don’t opt for freely available tools. Make sure that you look for the vendor’s security policies before signing the deal. You can check for how they share information, how they protect your information, and the like.

If this is expensive, you can also opt for the middle path, where only confidential documents are translated by professional services.