Translation agencies: destroying confidential documents
A translation agency or sworn translator gets to see the most confidential documents from clients: contracts, medical reports, legal documents, diplomas and personal deeds. Often with a duty of confidentiality and often full of special-category personal data. What happens to those source documents and translations once the assignment is done? This guide shows how long you keep them, what confidentiality means and how to destroy them confidentially.
The quick answer: the administration you keep for seven years for the tax retention obligation. Source documents and translations you keep as long as there is a purpose, such as delivery, revision or an agreed period, and clear out afterwards. Because the documents are often confidential and contain special data, you destroy them at a fine level, with a certificate as proof.
Why translation documents are confidential
A translation agency sees content the client rarely shares with anyone else. A divorce settlement, a medical file for treatment abroad, a legal contract or a criminal file passes through. A duty of confidentiality often applies, contractual or professional, and the documents often contain special-category personal data such as health, religion or criminal information. That makes the source document more sensitive than an ordinary text.
The GDPR requires storage limitation and an appropriate level of security. Do not keep the documents longer than necessary for the assignment and any revision, and destroy them afterwards so that nothing remains reconstructable. The confidentiality that applies during the assignment also applies when clearing out.
Retention periods by part
The period differs per type of data. The overview below gives the main line. Count the tax period from the end of the financial year and the other periods from the delivery of the translation.
| Part | Starting point | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Administration and invoicing | Tax retention obligation | 7 years |
| Client source documents | As long as there is a purpose | agreed period |
| Delivered translation | Delivery and revision | purpose-bound |
| Sworn translation | Own arrangements and professional rules | as agreed |
| Special data within a document | Extra protection | destroy finely |
| Working files and drafts | No independent purpose | clear out after delivery |
Use this as a guideline, not a final legal ruling. Set the retention period and confidentiality in your arrangements with the client. The tax side is in the 7-year tax retention obligation.
Confidentiality and special data
Where a document contains health, religious or criminal information, this is special-category personal data with stricter rules. Keep those documents recognisably separate, limit access to whoever makes and checks the translation, and destroy them at a fine level once their purpose has been served. The duty of confidentiality means you work carefully when clearing out too and let nothing end up in the ordinary paper bin.
Also think of working copies that arise during translation: printouts, notes and intermediate versions. They contain the same confidential content and should be destroyed confidentially after delivery.
Clients and the processor role
Translation agencies often work on behalf of companies, lawyers or institutions. The source documents are then that client's, and you record the arrangements about keeping and destroying in a processor agreement. Match your periods to those arrangements. If you work for a lawyer or notary, their side often has its own rules, as you read in lawyers: destroying a file after a case.
How to handle it in 6 steps
- Split the data into administration, source documents, translations and working files.
- Treat special data separately and at a fine destruction level.
- Assess per assignment whether delivery and revision are completed.
- Clear out working copies and drafts without a retention obligation confidentially at once.
- Collect what may go in sealed containers, not in the paper bin.
- Have it destroyed confidentially with a certificate and record it in your register.
Destroy confidentially with a certificate
Source documents, translations and working copies you have destroyed confidentially at a fine level, because they often contain confidential and special data. The paper and any data carriers travel sealed and stay that way until destruction, so the chain is closed. An old computer or backup with translation files belongs with it too.
Afterwards you receive a certificate of destruction with the date, quantity and level. That certificate is your proof towards the GDPR and your client that you upheld confidentiality to the end. Record the destruction in your record of processing. We collect within 20 km of Amsterdam with no call-out charge, work nationwide through pooled collection rounds and charge a fixed price per box or roll container. Drop-off on site is not possible; it works by appointment through collection.
Confidential translation documents to be destroyed?
Tell us what you have and you get a fixed price. We collect it sealed, destroy it at a fine DIN level and you receive a certificate for your GDPR file. No call-out charge within 20 km of Amsterdam.
Request a quoteCommon mistakes
- Keeping source documents just in case. After delivery and revision the purpose usually lapses.
- Treating special data as ordinary text. Health and criminal data require a fine level.
- Leaving working copies lying around. Printouts and notes contain the same confidential content.
- Throwing away unshredded. A confidential document on the street is a data breach and a breach of confidentiality.
- Keeping no proof. Without a certificate you cannot demonstrate the destruction.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a translation agency keep source documents?
The administration falls under the seven-year tax retention obligation. Source documents and translations you keep as long as there is a purpose, such as delivery, revision or an agreed period, and clear out afterwards, unless the client agrees otherwise.
Are a client's source documents confidential?
Often yes. A translation agency sees contracts, medical reports, legal documents and personal records. A duty of confidentiality usually applies and the documents often contain special-category personal data that requires a fine destruction level.
Do different rules apply to sworn translations?
A sworn translator has their own responsibility and sometimes arrangements about keeping translations. Stick to those arrangements and your duty of confidentiality, and destroy source documents confidentially once the purpose has been served.
How do I destroy translation documents in line with the GDPR?
Confidentially and with a certificate of destruction. Paper and data carriers travel sealed and the destruction is recorded in the record of processing.
Conclusion
A translation agency works with the most confidential documents there are, often under confidentiality and full of special data. Keep the administration seven years, keep source documents and translations as long as there is a purpose and clear them out afterwards, and treat special data separately. What may go you have destroyed confidentially at a fine level, with a certificate as proof. That way you uphold your clients' confidentiality to the end.
Read also: photographers: destroying client photos and portraits, driving schools: destroying pupil data, mediators: destroying divorce and conflict files and the GDPR retention periods cheatsheet.
Have translation documents collected? Request a quote via desnipperaar.nl. Within a few minutes you have a fixed price, including a certificate as proof.