Years and years ago I started to collect characters of many different writing systems from around the world along with little vignettes about them and always them announced in the Tool Box Journal once I published these on my website. While this didn't contribute to world peace or cure cancer, it was a little garden of respite. Like a park in the spring where I could admire beautiful flowers and blooming trees, or a gallery where the different pieces of art transported me to places I had never been before. Some of you accompanied me on that journey.

When Renato Beninatto become co-owner of Multilingual and contacted me late last summer with the idea of publishing a book, it seemed like a wonderful opportunity to publish my little collection as a beautifully designed book.

I'm beyond thrilled to tell you that the book has now indeed been published, and it's gorgeous (I won't even apologize for speaking so grandly about it). It's the kind of book that you can use to remind yourself why you love languages after a long day of translating; the kind of book you can give to your family, friends, and (maybe most importantly!) your clients so they will finally understand what makes language so ingenious and extraordinary; and the kind of book you can have on your coffee table to proudly show visitors, well knowing that they will not be disappointed.

(Okay, that's enough.)

You can purchase it on Amazon or (if you want a signed copy) on my website. Another fantastic idea would be to give it to all of your clients and vendors -- you can make bulk purchases on Multilingual's website and even have it customized with your own introduction or logo. However you choose to acquire it, I hope you'll treasure it.

Here is the introduction to Characters with Character -- 50 Ways to Rekindle Your Love Affair with Language:

Also known as speech banks, they tend to include material designed for practice purposes. Speeches are generally recorded by interpreter trainers (EU Speech Repository), interpreters (AmeriVox, IBPG, PIPS, Repris, TIP and WISE), or students (Speechpool).

When most interpreters search for speeches delivered at the United Nations, they stumble across UN Web TV. That platform includes on-demand and live video in all UN languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish and Russian). But there’s a catch: most videos only include the original language and the English interpretation. Plus, the platform doesn’t allow you to download videos, which makes practice a bit trickier.

Enter the UN Digital Recordings Portal, which includes recordings from thousands of meetings at the United Nations.

Now it’s time to set up the tech. We recommend Audacity, a free multi-track audio editor which runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Check out techforword’s free video!

I know some of you might not be enthusiastic about me writing again about data privacy when using generic MT engines like Google, Microsoft, and DeepL. This will be partly because I've done so a number of times already, and I think many might be using the data privacy issue as a kind of marketing ploy that is just too good to let go of -- even though it's not exactly truthful (more on that below).

Now, I'm under no illusion that whatever I write here or elsewhere holds more weight than whatever someone else might write, but truthfully I want to make really sure that I myself understand the admittedly very important data privacy issues, so I'm just taking you (once again) on that journey with me.

The question is this: Is my clients' data privacy assured when I as their translator use services like Google Translate, Microsoft Translator (or whatever it might be called at this particular point in time), or DeepL?

Let's start with times when it's not safe or ethically defensible. (Note that I'm not going to talk about the use of machine translation in general, just about whether it's safe to trust Google, Microsoft, or DeepL to use the data you transmit to them only for the purpose of suggesting a machine translation to you and for nothing else.)

First, it's not ethically defensible if your client expressly prohibits it. That's it as far as that point is concerned. It might be that the client is ill-informed about why they prohibit this, but that's clearly not your concern. If they say don't do it, you don't do it.

Second, it's not safe to use any of those services if you use their web interface at translate.google.com, bing.com/translator, deepl.com/translator, or through apps of any of those companies that offer the machine translations for free (exception: Microsoft Office products -- see below). These companies expressly say that they very well might use your data to improve their services.

So far so good.

Good?

Yes, I think that this is good for us because it differentiates the casual user of machine translation from those of us who use machine translation as one of our resources during professional translation. Because what we (should!) do is access machine translation from those sources via their API (application programming interface -- how different programs exchange information). And if we access it within a translation environment (Trados, memoQ, Memsource -- you name it), that is exactly what we're doing.

Here is what the different systems say about that:

It seems relatively clear to me but a) I'm not a lawyer and b) all too often fellow translators or other technology providers like to throw shade on those provisions by pointing to other sections in the legal thickets of those companies that might read like loopholes to those conditions. If the skepticism arises out of real doubt about whether that data might be treated differently than outlined in the legal statements above, it's not only justified but laudable. But in other cases, I seem to notice a stubbornness borne either of wanting to sell a product or service that in some way competes with those generic MT offerings (a sales pitch masquerading as moral high-ground), or just a general rejection of MT in all its forms (or any combination of the two). I think we have to be careful about taking stands that might be hard to defend, especially when it comes to the core of our business as translators or translation technology providers.

(Plus, it has always seemed kind of preposterous to assume that professional translators have so much to add to the ongoing collection of data -- remember, we are only talking about source data here, unless you would be using the tools' interfaces to make corrections to the translation data -- that it would even make a dent in the billions of times non-API users access the data and enter text, and that these companies would embarrass themselves by not keeping what clearly seems to be a contractual promise.)

Either way, I thought it would be helpful to actually reach out to some people with these organizations to see what they actually know about their company's plan for data submitted through their APIs. I didn't even try with DeepL since I know that they are terrible at communication. I did contact someone at Google who essentially confirmed the contractual agreement, though he was very eager not to go on the 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 in Mountain View 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 is 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, IP the request came from, and similar. 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 "Using the paid API services to obtain translation from Microsoft (with or without Custom Translator), there is no case where the source data will be used by Microsoft (…). Is that correct?"

And Chris's 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 machine translation. 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 that are written about MT are about customized MT systems. It is possible to use customized systems -- either provided by clients or through systems like the ones above that we ourselves can train. Fact is, though, that the vast majority of translators do not 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 is these kinds of systems that many are using. And it's good to know exactly what that means.

Here's an interesting feature in relatively recent versions of Windows 10 that I just discovered: Storage Sense.

Since my workhorse laptop likely has a year or two left in it, I decided to ride it all the way into the sunset (use of metaphors: A+). A year or so ago it needed some major repairs, during which most of its keyboard went dead and the newly installed hard drive went from relatively small to really small. (Don't ask why! Just remember: I live in the middle of nowhere with the corresponding computer repairmen. . . . ) Still: It's got a decent processor in it, and its successor is already waiting at home. And since I feel slightly abashed at all the resources that go into building each computer, I feel like I should at least squeeze as much out of it as I can.

The pitiful storage on its hard drive and my fear that it might give out before the allotted "year or two" have motivated me to switch virtually all of my file storage to Microsoft's OneDrive. Though this comes as part of the Windows package with only a few GB's, it gets stocked up to a terabyte+ with a Windows 365 subscription (notice the recent name change from "Office 365"). I have been working like this for about a year now and really like it. It allows me to access my files from any computer, it makes it easy to share a folder or file with third parties with ease, and it allows me to continue working on my ridiculous laptop. I know there are a number of other similar solutions (Dropbox, etc.) out there, but a) I would have to pay for them and b) in my humble opinion they have an overly negative impact on the way Windows runs. (It truly is a humble opinion because I'm sure many of you have much more expertise and plausible reasons to know otherwise. But, please, please, don't take this away from me since this would nullify my pet excuse for not being able to help my wife with her Dropbox-centric computer: "Honey, the only reason your computer is so sluggish is because of Dropbox and I don't know how to fix that!")

OneDrive works by storing your files in the (Microsoft) cloud and making a local copy as soon as you open a file. This allows you to continue working on that file even without an internet connection (I did mention that I live in the boonies where power and internet access fails relatively regularly, right?). The problem is that these are never deleted once opened and saved on your hard drive, which eventually defeats the purpose of storing them in the cloud if your goal was to offload them from your local storage in the first place.

This is (finally!) where Storage Sense comes in. To activate it and access its features, open your computer's Settings (quickest way: WinKey+i), select System and then Storage. Somewhere on that page you'll see the Storage Sense settings (in its short lifespan, this has changed a number of times; in the latest version of Windows it's right at the top) along with an activation toggle. Once you select (Storage Sense) Settings, you can see the various options (how often you want to purge files and which files you want to automatically delete -- be wise in your selections!). At the very bottom you'll find the setting for OneDrive files -- the one I really appreciate. In my mind there is no reason for a file to be in my computer for more than a few days after I use it. I know it's better protected and safer in Microsoft's cloud, and taking if off my hands makes my little engine laptop that could chug on just a little longer.

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