Confidentiality Issues With Freelancers? Come On, Be Serious!
Please read this blog post written by an excellent medical translator who works in Germany.
Sonja has found the site of a German translation agency that seems to be listing the advantages for organizations, of using translation agencies versus freelancers.
One of these advantages would be that freelancers do not guarantee confidentiality.
Sonja is a serious translator, I have been reading her blog for some time, and she reports all this in a very balanced way, so I have no problem believing her, even though I don’t know German myself.
To support Sonja’s comments, I would like to add this, and all clients and potential clients must be made aware of it: According to all known definitions, a freelance professional is characterized by high competence in his/her field, applies a code of ethics and is bound by confidentiality.
In plain English, that means that just as your physician is not allowed to spread the news of your cancer or plan to have an abortion, we are not allowed to tell the rest of the world about your new concepts, or about the dealings inside your Boardroom. We can be taken to court if we do not perform accordingly. You will find for instance that leaks are usually spread by insiders, not by outside professionals.
The definition of confidentiality, also called professional secrecy, appears in the publications of Société Française des Traducteurs (SFT), Association Internationale des Interprètes de Conférence (A.I.I.C.), the French UNAPL, which does not cover only translators, but all freelancers. I haven’t checked other translators’ organizations, although I am sure they would probably confirm that.
Thank you Sonja for highlighting what is obviously a case of disinformation meant to build more business on the back of freelance professionals. May I add that the same translation agencies are often only too happy to outsource ‘jobs’ to freelance professionals, if they can, at highly discounted rates. See a contradiction here? Why should they offload some if not all of their work onto freelancers whom they consider flawed?
So if you are a translator or even a client who has a genuine interest in our work, please go and check her post. Thank You.
