The appeal of using AI for quick translations is undeniable. A simple copy-and-paste, and you have your text in another language — no friction, no cost, just instant results. It’s an easy, seductive promise.

But what if every piece of text you drop into a public AI tool leaves a digital breadcrumb for anyone to find?

The truth is, it does. What many companies don’t realize is that these seemingly private conversations with tools like ChatGPT are not guaranteed to stay that way. In a digital world where everything is indexed, your ‘quick and dirty’ translation could become a permanent public record.

This is a new and significant threat to business confidentiality, and as a translation buyer, you must understand it to protect your company’s most valuable assets.

Google Dorking and the Leaky Black Box

The risk stems from a powerful security technique known as Google Dorking. This is not a malicious hack but a legitimate method of using advanced search operators to find information that has been unintentionally made public. When a private ChatGPT conversation is shared — even with a single person via a link — that link can be indexed by a search engine like Google.

Google Dorking allows a malicious actor — or even a curious competitor — to search for specific text strings or file types and discover these conversations. This turns what was meant to be a private exchange into a public record that can expose:

• Proprietary Information: Details about a new product, a marketing strategy, or a business plan.
• Confidential Data: Legal documents, financial figures, or a list of your customers’ names and contact information.
• Trade Secrets: The core, secret ingredients that give you a competitive edge.

The moment you copy and paste text into an unsecure AI tool, you are creating a digital breadcrumb that you may never be able to fully erase.

The Business Impact: More Than Just a Data Leak

The consequences of this ‘leaky black box’ go far beyond a simple data leak. They strike at the very core of your business’s health and security:

• Erosion of Competitive Advantage: Your competitors could find out about your new products before they even hit the market, giving them a chance to react or even beat you to it.
• Breach of Confidentiality and NDAs: Using a public AI tool to translate a document covered by a non-disclosure agreement is a breach of that agreement. This can lead to serious legal penalties and a loss of trust from your partners.
• Reputational Damage: The public exposure of sensitive information, even if it’s not a legal violation, can severely damage your company’s reputation for being trustworthy and secure.

Your Proactive Defense: The Expert Translator as a Partner

This is precisely where the ‘AI and done’ mindset becomes a dangerous liability. While the promise of frictionless, instant translation is appealing, it comes with a level of risk that no responsible business can afford to take.

This is why your translator is no longer just a language provider; they are a critical risk-management partner. As we explored in our previous post, The New Battleground: Why Translators are Your Front Line in AI-Driven Risk Management, a modern translator is an expert who can protect your business by:

• Selecting Secure Tools: Vetting AI platforms and recommending secure, private-instance models where your data is never used for training.
• Guarding Your IP: Using AI as a drafting tool, but ensuring the final output is human-edited and legally sound, protecting your ownership of the content.
• Adhering to Compliance: Acting as a guardian of your confidentiality, guaranteeing that all work adheres to your NDAs and data protection regulations.

The promise of AI is speed and efficiency. The promise of an expert translator is that, in addition to this speed, your business will be protected from the very real, very public risks that come with it.

By the way: While we at OLI only work with other nonprofits, we do have an extensive database of qualified translators we are happy to put you in touch with. Simply reach out to hello@olangi.org and let us know your needs. We’ll happily put you in touch with a translator who can help you outside the OLI ecosystem. Or simply browse the list of volunteers on our community platform, Elevate, and contact the perfect match yourself.