this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
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The Firefox browser now has a built-in page translator that works even without the Internet::Mozilla has announced the release of an update to its Firefox browser. In version number 118, users will find a significant innovation - a built-in translator

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (5 children)

That's really not good. Literally all of these are European languages.

I'd rather have it connected to a better translation service than have it be offline. I don't understand why the translator working offline is even a plus. It's a web browser.

I assume there must not be any FOSS translation services they can use so this offline translator is just a consequence of that.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It's for privacy purposes. An online translator requires that all the text you're reading be sent to a third party, which may or may not use it for nefarious purposes. E.g. maybe you translate your bank account's web page because there's a word you don't know, and now Google knows how much money you have in your bank account.

If you don't care about that kind of privacy, then there's no reason you couldn't use an existing online translator. Firefox has always supported that.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

That makes sense, thanks.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That's fine for translating news articles, but maybe not for private email. Different people accept different risk levels in different situations. If you have reason to be using https then maybe you don't want to send that data to a third party.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

I'm sure they would be happy to accept your help in translating a new language.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Gets 5 free stuff and bitches for not getting 50. Some people...