Data Protection in a Translation Agency

Personal data protection is a problem that every organization must address these days. As a translation agency, our team receives many concerns from our clients regarding the possibility of data leaks during the translation process.

Thus, in our post today, we will discuss the data protection issues and how a translation agency handles your data.

What Do You Need to Know about Data Protection?

There are two categories of data protection you should take into consideration:

• • Personal data is protected by data-protection laws. The GDPR has given EU residents the right to informational self-determination. It gives residents the right to know what personal information is collected, kept, processed, and disseminated. This entails significant duty and accountability for businesses.

• • The protection of data and information as corporate assets is referred to as information security. This is especially true for publicly traded firms when it comes to insider knowledge. These are information that the general public is unaware of, but which may have an impact on the value of shares and other securities. Insider trading, let alone unauthorised sharing of insider knowledge, is a criminal violation.

How is Your Data Handled During a Translation Project?

Before we go into how your data should be handled during a translation project, let’s talk about the types of data your translation agency will receive or gather from you.

Your translation partner will know about some of your personally identifiable information (such as your full name, date of birth, contact details, driver’s license, or social security). These data are gathered by numerous online and offline methods. For example, it is performed when you request a translation quotation using a contact form or when you place an online order on their website.

A professional translation agency should be required to handle such personal information in a way that does not surprise the individual or violate the law. In addition, they should never utilize the translated data for other purposes, such as sending marketing emails to the people identified in the translated document.

Here are some practices your translation partner should use to guarantee data protection:

• • Receive and send documents via secure servers.
  • Remove private information before sending the documents to translators.
  • Use a secure room without access to phones or papers if necessary.
  • Send their employees to the client site if needed.

How is Your Data Handled After the Project Completion?

After your project is completed, your translation partner might retain some of your data for a set amount of time. They should proactively inform you of what types of data they store and why they store it, along with the specific storage duration.

The common type of data your translation partner is likely to store is a translation memory that is a glossary of frequently used terms and phrases that allows translations to be processed faster and more effectively. Meanwhile, personally identifiable information should not be kept.

5 Tips to Keep Your Data Safe During Translation

To make sure that your personal and business data is protected by your translation partners, you should keep in mind the following tips:

#1. Carefully Choose Your Translation Agency

In the process of finding and evaluating potential translation partners, you should ask them carefully about their data protection policies. A translation agency that has a culture of privacy should have a clear data protection program that is continuously assessed and adjusted as well as regular privacy processes training for their employees.

You should also look for those who are ISO-certified as this type of certification shows their commitment to developing and maintaining an efficient quality management system.

#2. Make Sure Your Communication is Safe

Depending on the level of sensitivity of your documents, you should apply different methods to ensure that all your documents are not leaked during the communication process between you and your translation agency. You should consider using encrypted emails and a download server to send and receive files.

#3. Censor Your Content Before Sending for Translation

Before sending the source files for translation, you are recommended to leave out some sensitive and confidential information such as names, contact details, and business figures. Once receiving the final translation, you can add them back. This method surely helps you prevent possible leaks of sensitive information.

#4. Minimise the Number of People Involved

If your data is highly sensitive, you should try to minimise the number of people that can access it during the translation process. Every extra person involved adds more risk to data protection.

Instead of working with multiple translation agencies, you should consider a one-stop one that can cover all your translation requirements.

#5. Always Have Written Confirmation

If a translation agency promises you that all your data will be secured and that is all they do – just talk. Then you know it is not a good choice of translation partners. You need to receive written confirmation from them, showing that your translation partner understands their responsibility in protecting your data.

Important documents like an NDA must be signed before you send any document to the chosen translation agency.

To Wrap Up

Our team at GTE Localize ensures that all your submitted documents are encrypted and secure. We require all of our translators and support team (project managers, account managers, and salespeople) to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for each translation they work on.

Contact us to learn more about our data protection policies and get your translation project started.