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Is it safe to translate confidential documents online?

What actually happens to a file after you upload it: how long it is kept, whether it trains a model, who can reach it — and when the honest answer is that it should not be uploaded at all.

Updated

#Document Security
#Confidential Documents
#Data Retention
#Private Deployment

Quick answer

It comes down to three things, none of which is a marketing claim: how long the file is kept, whether its content is used to train models, and who can reach it while it exists. Ask those three of any translation service, and expect the answers in its privacy policy rather than in its FAQ.

The three questions worth asking any online translator

QuestionWhy it mattersBelin Doc
How long is the file kept?Storage duration is the exposure windowUploaded files and results are deleted within 24 hours of processing
Is my content used to train models?Training means the content outlives the jobNo — document content is not used to train AI models
Who can reach it meanwhile?Public links leak long after you have forgotten themHTTPS in transit; files are served through time-limited presigned URLs, never public links

All three are stated in the privacy policy — check the policy, not the landing page, for any service you evaluate.

What is kept, and for how long

  • Uploaded files and translation results — deleted within 24 hours of processing
  • Log data (IP, access logs) — up to 90 days
  • Account information — for the life of the account, plus 30 days after deletion
  • Billing records — 5 years, to meet financial record-keeping requirements

What you can do on your side

  • Upload only the pages that need translating: split the file and leave the annex out
  • Strip signature pages, personal data and pricing that are not part of what you actually need translated
  • In a team, work under accounts rather than as a guest, so translation history is attributable — see organization accounts

When the answer is "do not upload it"

Some documents are not permitted to leave an organisation's own infrastructure at all. No retention policy solves that, because the constraint is on transit rather than storage. That case is what private deployment exists for: translation runs inside your network, on your storage, with an auditable pipeline.

Bottom line

"Is it safe" is really three questions: retention, training, and access. For Belin Doc the answers are 24 hours, no, and time-limited links only. And when a file may not leave your network at all, no retention policy fixes that — private deployment does.