How careful are you about hiding your client's identity when asking Kudoz questions? Thread poster: Madeleine MacRae Klintebo
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A few years' ago I saw an interesting EN-SV Kudoz question in my major speciality field which is finance. The asker kindly supplied the whole paragraph as context. Great for answerers, not so great for the end client.
I'm a freelancer who also works in-house, marketing and content, for a financial company. As such it was immediately obvious to me that one of our competitors was aiming for the Swedish market. So I googled the full paragraph and, guess what, I got only one result - on... See more A few years' ago I saw an interesting EN-SV Kudoz question in my major speciality field which is finance. The asker kindly supplied the whole paragraph as context. Great for answerers, not so great for the end client.
I'm a freelancer who also works in-house, marketing and content, for a financial company. As such it was immediately obvious to me that one of our competitors was aiming for the Swedish market. So I googled the full paragraph and, guess what, I got only one result - one of our main competitors. Interesting info for me and my company.
Now I've come across a question with much less context, just a short sentence, but as figures are given in the question it's still very useful to me.
The market I work in is quite small, as regards population and therefore number of companies, and this is a highly specialised field, so I can easily point my finger at roughly 2-3 potential end clients. Guess what I'll do with this info on Monday? Clue, the figures might be of interest.
Please keep confidentiality in mind when posting Kudoz questions. The end client's name/product name is just the start of it. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Very careful | Jun 28, 2009 |
Up to a point of not asking Kudoz questions at all if I see a risk that it could reveal my client's identity.
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| | | | | Very careful. But are you sure about that... | Jun 28, 2009 |
I rarely copy the actual text from my files, unless the text is too generic. I also tend to rephrase the whole sentence in order to remove any kind of actual information and/or make it sound too broad to be tracked down to one particular company, client or situation.
What I usually do is find similar context available online and use that as a context for the question. That's why the first thing I thought when I read your post was that maybe the person that asked those questions did ... See more I rarely copy the actual text from my files, unless the text is too generic. I also tend to rephrase the whole sentence in order to remove any kind of actual information and/or make it sound too broad to be tracked down to one particular company, client or situation.
What I usually do is find similar context available online and use that as a context for the question. That's why the first thing I thought when I read your post was that maybe the person that asked those questions did the same thing. I mean, using a random text publicly available to put a context to a term.
So I googled the full paragraph and, guess what, I got only one result - one of our main competitors. Interesting info for me and my company. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lingua 5B 
Bosnia and Herzegovina
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Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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| Confidentiality | Jun 28, 2009 |
I had worked in-house with highly-sensitive military and government material and thus learned what confidentiality is ages ago.
I've only asked two questions on KudoZ so far, none of which were pro translations for money ( no end clients).
I wouldn't expose any sort of paid content I'm working on publicly without an explicit authorization, especially when bound with confidentiality agreement ( but even without an NDA I still regard it as highly confidential).
... See more I had worked in-house with highly-sensitive military and government material and thus learned what confidentiality is ages ago.
I've only asked two questions on KudoZ so far, none of which were pro translations for money ( no end clients).
I wouldn't expose any sort of paid content I'm working on publicly without an explicit authorization, especially when bound with confidentiality agreement ( but even without an NDA I still regard it as highly confidential).
[Edited at 2009-06-28 01:05 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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| Could have done, but didn't | Jun 28, 2009 |
Claudia Alvis wrote:
That's why the first thing I thought when I read your post was that maybe the person that asked those questions did the same thing. I mean, using a random text publicly available to put a context to a term.
Not long after me finding this useful bit of info, the competitor I had in mind started their Swedish business.
And yes, the translated text was there on their site.
[Edited at 2009-06-28 01:19 GMT]
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I'm not saying that the information wasn't true. My point was that maybe the translator used that bit of information that already was visible. But since the translation was used on the website, no question about its origin. I do get your point and I fully agree with you on the confidentiality issue.
Madeleine MacRae Klintebo wrote: Claudia Alvis wrote:
That's why the first thing I thought when I read your post was that maybe the person that asked those questions did the same thing. I mean, using a random text publicly available to put a context to a term.
Not long after me finding this useful bit of info, the competitor I had in mind started their Swedish business. And yes, the translated text was there on their site. [Edited at 2009-06-28 01:19 GMT]
| | | | | Very careful | Jun 28, 2009 |
I always disguise company names, people's names, sums of money and even dates (if their inclusion is necessary for the context). Sometimes it's necessary to give an indication of the country (e.g. "a Latin American/African country"). I'd indicate the type of document, e.g. customs regulations, development contract, murder investigation, but I'm very careful not to reveal anything that could easily disclose the client's identity. I suppose if someone was particularly eager, inquisitive and zealou... See more I always disguise company names, people's names, sums of money and even dates (if their inclusion is necessary for the context). Sometimes it's necessary to give an indication of the country (e.g. "a Latin American/African country"). I'd indicate the type of document, e.g. customs regulations, development contract, murder investigation, but I'm very careful not to reveal anything that could easily disclose the client's identity. I suppose if someone was particularly eager, inquisitive and zealous, they might possibly make an "educated guess", but that is all it would be.
Jenny ▲ Collapse
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