The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2021 - 33

GS
plan for data submitted
through their APIs. I did
contact someone at Google
who essentially confirmed
the contractual agreement,
though he was very eager
not to go on record with
anything that could get him
into hot water with Google's
legal team. (I remember
when interviewing the
former head of Google's MT
years ago, two members
of the legal team sat right
next to him and weighed
every word that came out of
his mouth). But I was very
grateful to Microsoft's Chris
Wendt-or rather former
Microsoft employee Chris
Wendt, who happened to
retire just days after I asked
him (Happy Retirement!).
Here's what he said:
" When using the
Translator API, free or paid,
or a commercial application
like Office, no customer
content will be stored by
Microsoft. When using a
Microsoft consumer app,
the Microsoft Translator
app for the phone or bing.
com/translator, Microsoft
may save the customer
content and use it for
quality improvement. We
recently changed the phone
app to specifically ask for
permission before storing
customer content.
There is a difference
between customer personal
data and customer content.
Customer content is the
payload of the translation
request. Customer personal
data identifies the customer,
like the subscription ID,
email address, physical
address, the internet
provider the request
came from, and similar
www.ata-chronicle.online
information. The services,
including Microsoft, do
maintain personal data
in order to send the bill,
ensure fairness, and throttle
the service. That's why
the explanation of what
happens with personal data
is somewhat lengthy. What I
say above is about customer
content (payload). Not about
the metadata associated with
the use of the service. "
And, just for clarification,
I asked again: " Is it correct
that when using the paid API
services to obtain translation
from Microsoft (with or
without Custom Translator),
there's no case where the
source data will be used
by Microsoft? " And Chris'
answer: " That's correct. Not
the translation either. "
And all of the above is by
no means me arguing that
you or anyone should use
MT. I have no dog in that
fight (it's really not a fight in
the first place), but I think
it's really important to be
clear about the legal
ramifications. Most of the
articles written about MT are
about customized MT
systems. It's possible to use
customized systems-either
provided by clients or
through systems like the
ones above that we ourselves
can train. Although the fact is
that most translators don't
have access to customized
systems (either because the
clients don't provide them or
because translators work in
too many different fields and
sub-fields to spend time
training engines), so it's
these kinds of systems that
many are using. And it's
good to know exactly what
that means.
NOTES
1
Zetzsche, Jost. " Data and
the Fine Print, or How to
Create a Sh*tstorm, " The
ATA Chronicle (March
2015), http://bit.ly/MTengines.
2
Google
Privacy Statement,
https://policies.google.
com/privacy.
3
Microsoft Privacy
Statement, https://
privacy.microsoft.com/
en-us/privacystatement.
4
DeepL Privacy Statement,
www.deepl.com/en/
privacy.
5
Google Cloud Data
Usage FAQ, http://bit.ly/
google-data-usage.
6
Microsoft Confidentiality
Statement, https://bit.ly/
Microsoft-confidentiality.
7
DeepL Privacy Statement,
www.deepl.com/en/
privacy.
Jost
Zetzsche is
chair of ATA's
Translation and
Interpreting
Resources Committee. He
is the author of Characters
with Character: 50 Ways
to Rekindle Your Love Affair
with Language. jzetzsche@
internationalwriters.com
This column has two goals:
to inform the community
about technological
advances and encourage
the use and appreciation
of technology among
translation professionals.
American Translators Association 33

http://www.bit.ly/MT-engines http://www.bit.ly/MT-engines https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en http://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement http://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement http://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement http://www.deepl.com/en/privacy http://www.deepl.com/en/privacy http://www.bit.ly/google-data-usage http://www.bit.ly/google-data-usage https://www.bit.ly/microsoft-confidentiality https://www.bit.ly/microsoft-confidentiality http://www.deepl.com/en/privacy http://www.deepl.com/en/privacy http://www.ata-chronicle.online

The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2021

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