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AI-Powered Neural Machine Translation for GC Employees

Translation & Language Access

What it collects that can identify you

Sensitive personal information
Identifiable data
  • GC employees may submit text for translation that contains personal information about individuals, depending on the content of documents being processed.

Also collects operational data, which is anonymized data.

Run by
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)
Where
No fixed location
Kept
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Shared with
Accountable organization, Vendor

What it is for

Translation & Language Access

This system is a cloud-based AI translation service operated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for its employees. It uses Microsoft's Azure AI Translator to convert text between multiple languages. The system supports multilingual workflows for government staff. Citizens and members of the public are not direct users of this system.

What it collects and what happens to it

Data taken in

Sensitive personal information
Identifiable data
  • GC employees may submit text for translation that contains personal information about individuals, depending on the content of documents being processed.
Operational data
Anonymized data
  • GC employees submit text documents, messages, or other operational content requiring translation as input to the system.

Processing

Language Models
  • Azure AI Translator uses neural machine translation (NMT) models — deep learning language models trained to translate between languages. These models are part of the Azure AI services family provided by Microsoft.

What it does

Understanding (Semantic AI)
Human decides
  • The system understands and processes natural language input from employees to produce translations. A human employee decides whether to use, edit, or discard the translation output.
Creating (Generative AI)
Human decides
  • The neural machine translation service generates new translated text in the target language that did not previously exist. The output is always reviewed and used at the discretion of the GC employee.

Outputs

Generated content
Anonymized data
  • The system produces translated text in the requested target language. Translations are new content generated by the AI and reviewed by the GC employee before use.

Run by

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)
  • The CRTC is the Government of Canada department that deploys and operates the Azure AI Translator service for use by its employees.

Government of Canada AI Register — 2526-CRTC-003

Built by

Microsoft
  • Microsoft is the vendor that builds and licenses the Azure AI Translator service used by the CRTC.

Government of Canada AI Register — 2526-CRTC-003

Kept for

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

Shared with

Available to the accountable organization
  • Translation outputs and usage data are available to the CRTC as the deploying organization.
Available to vendor
  • As a cloud-based service, Microsoft (Azure) may have access to input and output data processed through the service, subject to Microsoft's data processing agreements and privacy terms.

Stored

Stored on 3rd Party Cloud
  • The Azure AI Translator is a cloud-based service hosted on Microsoft Azure infrastructure. Data processed by the service transits and may be stored on Microsoft's cloud data centres.
  • Duration: Not specified in the register entry
How to read the colours

Can it identify you?

Anonymized data
Data about people with the link to who is broken. Stripped of identifiers, blurred, aggregated, or noised so this system can’t reasonably tie a record back to an individual.
Pseudonymous data
Each person’s data is tied to a token (hash, ID, template) that lets this system recognise the same person across events, but the token itself doesn’t reveal a name. Reidentification is possible with extra information.
Identifiable data
The data either contains a direct identifier (name, address, account name, recognisable face or voice, plate number) or carries a token this system uses to look up legal identity during processing.

Who completes the loop?

Human decides
This mode suggests; a person decides what to do next. The AI is always advisory — a human is in the loop on every decision. Example: a triage tool ranks cases for a clinician who chooses which to see first.
Human executes
This mode decides; a person carries out the result. Example: an optimizer plans the day’s trash-collection routes, and drivers run them.
Autonomous
This mode decides and acts on its own. No person reviews each decision or carries out the resulting action.

Definitions from the DTPR standard. Amber is about your data, violet about who decides. The fuller the shape and the deeper the colour, the more identifying the data or the less a person is involved.

What you can do

Ask about this system

Questions go to the Helpful Places, not the vendor.

Your rights

  • Right to Be Informed of AI UseGC employees are informed that they are using an AI-powered translation service (Azure AI Translator by Microsoft) when they access it. Contact the CRTC for more information about this system.
  • Right to Purpose LimitationThis system is deployed for use by GC employees in their official duties. Data submitted should only be used for translation purposes as described. Contact the CRTC Privacy Office for questions about data use.

Risks and safeguards

  • Societal & cultural harmNeural machine translation may produce errors or culturally inappropriate translations, particularly for specialized regulatory or legal language used at the CRTC. Risk is mitigated by the human-in-the-loop design: GC employees review all translation outputs before use, and the system is intended as an aid rather than a final authoritative translation.