Friday 19 March 2021

GDPR training with the Western Regional Group on 12 March 2021

On 12 March 2021 the ITI Western Regional Group (WRG) ran an online training event about GDPR. It featured a high-quality, information-packed presentation by Viviana Mucharraz, commercial legal advisor at Carbon Law Partners, which specialises in GDPR for businesses. It had been organised with superb efficiency and was facilitated by WRG member and former WRG Events Officer Sandra Mouton.

Viviana’s presentation provided a clear insight into GDPR obligations and the use of associated terminology: a “data controller” (for example an end client) is the person who decides how and why data is collected and processed, whereas a “data processor” (for example a freelance translator or interpreter) is a separate person or organisation processing such data on the controller’s behalf and in accordance with the controller’s instructions. Controllers have the highest level of compliance responsibility, whereas processors do not have the same level of obligations.


For GDPR purposes it is necessary to always
consider the purpose for which data is processed


 

The distinction between these roles depends on the particulars of each situation: an end client, an agency or a freelance translator or interpreter may act as a controller or a processor or as both! Viviana set out useful criteria and discussed how to ensure compliance in general. She explained that data is personal data if it relates to an identifiable living individual. Data processing covers almost any use of data: collecting, recording, storing, analysing, combining, disclosing and even deleting it!


She stressed that it is necessary to always consider the purpose for which data is processed or for which it is kept once an assignment has been completed. Keeping data may be acceptable, for example to comply with the provisions of an insurance policy (for a new purpose), even if an instruction (for a previous purpose) has been given not to keep such data. In this scenario it would be necessary to take steps to be able to demonstrate that such data was kept for a new purpose.


Viviana’s illuminating presentation was followed by a question and answer session, in which she provided comprehensive answers to the many burning questions on translation- and interpreting-related GDPR issues from attendees. None of her information should be taken as legal advice, but she advised us to generally err on the side of caution (which may involve deleting personal data on our systems after it has been used) and to demand written documentation of any work instructions.


The afternoon moved along at a brisk pace and was rounded off with an insightful talk by John O’Shea from FIT Europe about a recent survey conducted among translators and interpreters about GDPR. Findings from the survey include that there is widespread confusion about and low awareness of GDPR and that the availability of privacy policy templates would be desirable.


The Western Regional Group would like to thank both speakers and Sandra Mouton for a thoroughly useful event. GDPR issues inevitably are a part of all our businesses. The event has equipped us with the knowledge necessary to better deal with many of these issues in future.

 


 

Thursday 18 March 2021

Must-know Google search operators for translators (part 2)

Google search operators are powerful tools which translators can employ to create correct and idiomatic translations. They help narrow down the hits returned by Google, extracting specific information that a less refined search query would not.

The headache of online searches these days is that many of the words and phrases found online are unreliable, fishy or incorrect. How do translators go about finding correct and reliable words and phrases for use in their translations?


This blog post is the continuation of my previous blog post "Must-know Google search operators for translators (part 1)", which you can find here.

 

Focused internet searches are vital to the specialised work of translators
and can be powerfully aided by Google search operators

 
 

Reading a Google result
 

It is necessary to understand how a Google result is read.

When I enter, for example, the search words "Elisabeth Hippe-Heisler" into the Google search bar (known as "search query"), this is one of the results that will be displayed by Google:

 



The URL, which stands for Uniform Resource Locator, is the address of a given unique resource on the web.

The title is the title which the author of the webpage has added to the webpage.

The search words "Elisabeth Hippe-Heisler" will be displayed in bold in an extract from the webpage text.

 
Note that all examples which I’ve given below are based on translations from English to German (the main language combination I work with), but are, of course, applicable to any language combination.
 

The most helpful Google search operators for translators (part 2) 

 

intitle: 

The intitle: operator serves to search for words likely to appear in the title of a website. It is called “title” because in the underlying HTML code <title> tags are used:




Example:

Since machine learning and artificial intelligence are a frequent topic of my patent translations, I often need to equip myself with relevant English/German glossaries before embarking on my translation. It is possible to track down webpages with the German word “Glossar” or the English word “glossary” in the title.

 

The following search query will bring up 74 glossaries with either “Glossar” or “glossary” as well as “künstliche Intelligenz” (German for “artificial intelligence”) in the title.

intitle:Glossar|glossary intitle:"künstliche Intelligenz" 

 

For a more minimal use of words in my search query, I could alternatively shorten the search query as follows: 

allintitle:Glossar|glossary "künstliche Intelligenz"

 


Example: 

Say I’m thinking of using the term “Beacon-Frame” in my German translation, but am unsure whether it is a term that’s typically used in a German data communications context. Assuming further that I trust the reliability of terms on the itwissen.info site (or say I’ve been instructed to use this site for reference), I can then test for this term by typing the following query into Google:

"Beacon Frame" intitle:itwissen 

 

2 Google search hits will confirm to me that “Beacon-Frame” is used on itwissen.info. This convinces me it is appropriate to use the translation “Beacon-Frame” in my German translation.


The tilde symbol 

The tilde symbol ~ is the Google operator for finding synonyms.

 

Example:

To broaden my search for German deep learning-related glossaries, I can either use the OR operator | (the pipe symbol) and include various synonyms for “Glossar” (German for “glossary”) in my hunt for German glossaries:

"deep learning" intitle:glossar|begriffe|fachbegriffe|lexikon|terminologie 

 

Or so as to have to type less, I could simply use the tilde symbol:

"deep learning" ~intitle:glossar
 

Who (apart from translators and writers) uses Google to track down synonyms? Note: the tilde operator was deprecated several years ago, but I'm listing it here anyway, not least to demonstrate that Google will sometimes drop support for operators if usage is low!


related: 

The related: search operator is used to find sites similar to the one that is useful to me. 

 

Example: 

epo.org is the European Patent Office’s website, so related:epo.org will bring up other IP-related sites relevant to me as a patent translator as I can consequently extract useful terminology from them.

 


 


filetype:

The filetype: operator serves to limit searches to a specific file format of documents I want to look at online.

 
Example: 

Many reliable glossaries are contained in and available on the web as PDF files. If I’m required to collect glossaries for a mechatronics translation and, for instance, want to restrict my search to PDF files, I could use the following search query:


Mechatronik intitle:glossar|glossary filetype:pdf

 

Combinations of search operators (for example site: and intitle:) 

There are obviously lots of ways in which search operators can be combined for more efficient web searching! For example, one particularly useful way of tracking down terminology for a translation is combining the site: and intitle: search operators.


Example: 

Say it occurs to me that the expression “operatively connected” (or “operatively coupled”), which is typically used in patents, has already been discussed by translators on ProZ.com and I want to take a look at the discussion around this expression. 

English-to-German glossaries in the KudoZ database on ProZ.com are listed at http://www.proz.com/glossary-translations/english-to-german-glossaries, and they all have the words “English to German” in the browser title bar. For quick access to KudoZ results right from my Google search bar, I therefore usually use the following search command:

operatively intitle:"English to German" site:proz.com

 



Conclusion


Focused internet searches are vital to the specialised work of translators and can be powerfully aided by Google search operators. Google search operators are strings of characters that are added to a search engine query to help narrow down the hits returned by Google and produce more accurate translations.

 

This blog post is the continuation of my previous blog post "Must-know Google search operators for translators (part 1)", which you can find here.

Wednesday 3 March 2021

Must-know Google search operators for translators (part 1)

Focused internet searches are vital to the work of translators, as just entering keywords into a search engine often isn’t enough. For more targeted, granular search results, it may instead be necessary to add certain parameters, known as search parameters, to a search query.

 

Google search operators are powerful tools
which translators can employ to create correct and idiomatic translations

 

Creating correct translations using search operators 

The headache of online searches these days is that many of the words and phrases found online are unreliable, fishy or incorrect – a situation exacerbated by the fact that the internet is becoming increasingly swamped with machine translations. How do translators go about finding correct and reliable words and phrases for use in their translations?

This is where Google search operators come in. Google search operators are powerful tools which translators can employ to create correct and idiomatic translations. They help narrow down the hits returned by Google, extracting specific information that a less refined search query would not.


What are Google search operators?

Search operators are strings of characters that are added to a search engine query to narrow the focus of the search. You can, for instance, limit a search to just examining all the text on a particular website by using the site: operator.


Reading a Google result

It is first of all necessary to understand how a Google result is read.

When I enter, for example, the search words "Elisabeth Hippe-Heisler" into the Google search bar (known as "search query"), this is one of the results that will be displayed by Google:

 



The URL, which stands for Uniform Resource Locator, is the address of a given unique resource on the web.

The title is the title which the author of the webpage has added to the webpage.

The search words "Elisabeth Hippe-Heisler" will be displayed in bold in an extract from the webpage text.

 

Note that all examples given below are based on translations from English to German (the main language combination I work with), but are, of course, applicable to any language combination. 


The most helpful Google search operators for translators (part 1)


site:

The site: operator can be used to extract words and phrases from a particular website.

 

Example: 

The site: operator comes in useful, for example, when I’m scouring the leifiphysik.de website for typical German terms or collocations in a physics context for use in my translations. (This website has been recommended to me as a reliable online source for physics by my brother-in-law, who teaches physics in Germany.)

For instance, to find collocations containing the term “Körper” (the German translation of the English term “body”, which in physics is used to describe an object with mass), I input the following search query in Google and will hence be able to browse a host of typical German collocations:

"der Körper" site:leifiphysik.de

 



 










Example: 

Another useful search method which I frequently apply is to use the site:de operator to display websites from Germany only. In other words, the Google search results will be limited to a particular top-level domain (TLD). For instance, I could use the following search query to look at websites with artificial intelligence-related content specifically from Germany:

site:de "künstliche Intelligenz"



Wildcards 

A wildcard is designated by an asterisk (*), which stands for a keyword not yet known at the time I enter my search query. 

 

If I’m unable to remember all the words in a technical term I need to use, I can use a wildcard on Google to find this out quickly. Searches with wildcards – as opposed to searches without them – will usually yield pages about exactly what I'm looking for straight away, thus speeding up my search.

 

Example: 

"Redundant * of Independent Disks"

 


 

I love wildcards and use them all the time – and not just for work! Since I’m not a native speaker of English, I don’t translate into English. I do write a lot in English, though, with much of my writing targeted at British readers. To make sure my English writing sounds right to British ears, I frequently use combinations of wildcards and the site:co.uk operator.


Example:

"pandemic is still * havoc" site:co.uk



Bilingual searches 

Bilingual searches are useful for finding bilingual internet pages that will likely contain both the term and its translation. To narrow down the search, a field-related term in the target language could be added. 


Example: 

I recently had to deal with the term “interrupt coalescing“ in a computing translation. Since I had not come across the term before, I was first of all keen to find a definition of it, ideally a German one to assist me with the appropriate phrasing in my German translation.

I input the following search string into Google:

"Interrupt Coalescing ist"


3 Google hits came up, one of which read: "Interrupt Coalescing ist das Zusammenfassen von mehreren IP-Paketen auf dem Netzwerk-Adapter, bevor ein Interrupt ausgelöst wird." I was satisfied with this definition, not least because I noticed it was part of an e-book, and consequently went on to use „Interrupt Coalescing“ in my translation.

Note: I generally deem text found in e-books or Google Books much more reliable than text found on webpages as the latter are frequently sloppily worded and not properly proofread. 

 

The minus operator – 

The minus operator is used to exclude certain keywords or particular websites from a search. 

 

Example: 

Say I’m thinking of using the translation “Sequenzdetektor” in a machine learning context and wish to check whether this is a common term in German. Say I also wish to to exclude Amazon and Ebay from my search because the machine translations on these sites are known to be unreliable and won’t therefore be of much use in my hunt for the correct term. For this, I use the minus operator:

"Sequenzdetektor" -amazon -ebay

 

Google provides 389 results for “Sequenzdetektor”, including a host of useful German computer engineering sites or book extracts (but not Amazon or Ebay).  


 


 

Alternatively, I could specifically exclude Amazon and Ebay websites from my search:

"Sequenzdetektor" -site:amazon.de -site:ebay.de

 

The pipe symbol |

The pipe symbol stands for OR and is used to include various alternatives of a word in a single search query to cover a number of possibilities. 

 

Example:

I could use the OR operator to find explanations of the meaning of “wear leveling” in an electronics context in German:

 "Wear Leveling ist|bedeutet|wird"

 


 

Example: 

The OR operator comes in useful, for example, in double-checking if “sequenzielle Abhängigkeit” is a typical German term in a deep learning context.

For broader search results, I additionally include various German declensions of the adjectives and nouns I’m using in my search query as well as alternative German spellings (note that I don’t always include so many alternatives):


"sequenzielle|sequentielle|sequenzieller|sequentieller|sequentiellen|sequenziellen Abhängigkeiten|Abhängigkeit" "Deep Learning"


This approach will bring up a few hits. The following book extract convinces me of the reliability of the term “sequenzielle Abhängigkeit”, as a result of which I go on to use it in my translation:

 


 




inurl:

The inurl: operator is employed to check for words likely to appear in the URL of a website.

 

Example: 

I recently had to translate the phrase “to act as a packet capturer (e.g. packet sniffer) during training mode” in a patent translation about machine learning. The term “packet sniffer” is used in German, too, but how to translate “packet capturer”? Translating literally was out of the question. 

Here, the inurl: operator came in useful in the following search engine query:

 "Packet Sniffer" inurl:glossar
 

It transpired from this search that “aufzeichnen”, “abfangen” or “ausspähen” are typical verbs in this context, so I settled on the following translation: “während des Trainingsmodus (z. B. als Packet Sniffer) Datenpakete aufzeichnen”.


Example: 

Recently, the term “feature extractor” (again in a machine learning context) came up in one of my texts for translation, and I wasn’t sure what the correct German equivalent was. I was keen first of all to track down a glossary. To this end I used the following search query:

"feature extractor|extraction" inurl:glossar


The following useful glossary came up: https://quizlet.com/de/459396454/glossar-mti-flash-cards. So I settled on the translation “Merkmalsextraktor”. 
 

Feature extraction
Beim maschinellen Lernen, bei der Mustererkennung und in der Bildverarbeitung beginnt die Merkmalsextraktion mit einem ersten Satz von Messdaten und bildet abgeleitete Werte (Merkmale), die informativ und nicht redundant sein sollen, was die nachfolgenden Lern- und Verallgemeinerungsschritte erleichtert und in einigen Fällen zu einer besseren menschlichen Interpretation führt.


Conclusion

Focused internet searches are vital to the specialised work of translators and can be powerfully aided by Google search operators. In this post I give an overview of Google search operators that are most helpful to translators.

 

This is part 1 of a 2-part article. You can find part 2 of this article here.