Secret messages being passed via Google Translate and Lorem Ipsum?

[thewayne]

The text Lorem Ipsum is faux Latin taken from a passage by Cicero, it was most commonly used as a placeholder in texts or web pages to check layout before actual content was available. It doesn't mean anything, it's mangled Latin.

However....

A researcher noticed that while typing Lorem in to Google Translate that it translated as 'China', further research with other words from the Lorem Ipsum block showed other peculiarities, almost as if people were using Google Translate to send secret messages. Sadly, Google Translate underwent an update that stopped these interesting translations, however, people have since found that some words from the faux text do still produce interesting results.

Coincidence, or not? We'll probably never know. I wonder if Krebs or others have filed FOIA requests with the CIA/NSA for documents related to Google Translate? Could be interesting.

http://krebsonsecurity.com/2014/08/lorem-ipsum-of-good-evil-google-china/

Comments

[silveradept]

If we hadn't had the Snowden revelations, this would probably have been laughed off as machine translation errors. Now, since we know that there's so much spying going on, you have to wonder.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I'm going to be making a big Snowden post soon, lots of interesting goings-on.

This is just weird. Doesn't look like an efficient use of resources to me, I think steganography would be just as useful.

And on an unrelated note, take a look at the latest issue of Wired. They talk about a library in TN(IIRC) that installed a Makerspace for $25k.