Users of the discontinued Google Translator Toolkit had the option to download their data. But instead of doing exactly what it said on the box, Google actually sent users’ translation data to other users—and won’t reveal what got sent where. Oops!

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, even though we like to pretend so on the Internet. Web users around the world have come to rely on many of the free services that Silicon Valley makes so enticing for personal as well as business purposes. Yet, as many people have pointed out over the years, and more fervently in the wake of Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal, “If you’re not paying for a product, then you are the product.”

Like most of Google’s offerings, Google Translator Toolkit was free to users. Among other things, the application allowed translators to upload documents; pre-translate documents with Google Translate; create glossaries and translation memories; and share glossaries, translations and translation memories with others. But going the way of Google’s ill-fated social network Google+, Google Translator Toolkit was shut down in 2019.

Google Translator Toolkit users had the option to export their data, which they could then save or use somewhere else. From October 30, 2019 to April 7, 2020, however, as Google informed users in an email, some exported Google Translator Toolkit data was sent to other users. Google was sorry of course, but they were unable to confirm which accounts were affected or who had received the data.

If you were a translation student who had used Google Translator Toolkit as a free computer-assisted translation (CAT) tool to practice with, then I imagine you’d still be cool as a cucumber, but if you were a translator or translation company who used Google Translator Toolkit in a commercial capacity (not us!), you might apoplectic. But I guess you get what you pay for. Besides, there are plenty of other good CAT tools on the market these days.

In the translation business, our collections of source documents, glossaries, past translations and translation memories are the keys to the kingdom, so to speak, which is why data security is so very important. Translators and especially translation companies need to do everything we can to protect our data and our clients’ data from falling into the wrong hands. And we are.

At Responsive Translation our clients depend on us every day and entrust us with their item banks, their medical records and other confidential data needing translation. And we take that responsibility seriously. You can read about our data security practices here. But if more security is needed on top of our standard measures, we are always happy to provide our clients with additional layers of security to match their security needs. Just let me know what you require at 646-847-3309 or [email protected].

Hats off to Slator for the tip.