Somehow my email response got replaced with a foreign language
February 27, 2017 7:52 AM Subscribe
I responded to an email using my gmail account on my Kindle Fire. The recipient responded that she wasn't sure the email was for her because it was in a foreign language. When I looked at her response email, the text of my email was now replaced with a language I don't recognize and can't figure it out using Google Translate. I've pasted part of the message inside:
Is this message:
A.) gibberish?
B.) My original message translated into another language?
C.) Someones email that somehow got swapped with mine in some kind of gmail glitch?
D.) Should I be worried about the email security on my Kindle?
*my original email message was setting up a meeting at a coffee shop.
Portion of replaced message
䗫溮珚똛�覦秢鸈♪⥜ꉤ幱秗櫞눩굪騶틻㊱쨦熫Ჳꭺ좦떪棛䯬쫇⢙욬뙷귷굵磗輛쪷겙ꢥ爝맛�쫇⢙욬뙷귂⭡Ⳅ켲觶鯛䵻흮監羴퍍ᑌ燨꽹ퟫꉩ骊媤팝럪ਨ艗鲢戏뾭뫓럼潎㓑휴⫞눩굪騶틻㊱쨦熫諘刱㏢瘢乱촔젚첿梊鰧ऴ䄌ꉽ묕퍞鶸�㓓䗂輀촴퍍ᜂꊸ귈霫⊲ﶶ狵蹠鄗㖲浭꽆ꦸ䥌饳⊿�鴁႖립썞�䜓遰錀흆袢戟䟓崚齫ﵘ슮茑×䚂℘ꜙ怀᪤拤燢ሀ쮚㩜䚒消怑嘰ཚ䁅�띶×䚕㥮欥ᗁ橦秏彛ྲ꺤ᢋ�ꢗ홎ᣮ져�흾⧢뜣Ẳ욠硷꺮⬭觋࠾ﺘ䲴땈ೀᄈꉧ᪲풌䳴ꦢ諡뛚翾চ詗⢚᭭ꟿ⥪鍌盟꠨ꈉ干覀뫘庞�櫘ꢝឬ멛沭髖ꦣ洯댫Ტ朚닙��骖겲រ痪�暢闊⚅窶夎ẗᅹ잢뷧寊暢隩㓇淺芊ₕ鬈궅⌓㸧泗캬ꏝ篫佷�ᯕ飼閬⯳켜ꉧ᪲�듊⟛녞潭㗯丹�듳䴏䤰쨠쒢
Is this message:
A.) gibberish?
B.) My original message translated into another language?
C.) Someones email that somehow got swapped with mine in some kind of gmail glitch?
D.) Should I be worried about the email security on my Kindle?
*my original email message was setting up a meeting at a coffee shop.
Portion of replaced message
䗫溮珚똛�覦秢鸈♪⥜ꉤ幱秗櫞눩굪騶틻㊱쨦熫Ჳꭺ좦떪棛䯬쫇⢙욬뙷귷굵磗輛쪷겙ꢥ爝맛�쫇⢙욬뙷귂⭡Ⳅ켲觶鯛䵻흮監羴퍍ᑌ燨꽹ퟫꉩ骊媤팝럪ਨ艗鲢戏뾭뫓럼潎㓑휴⫞눩굪騶틻㊱쨦熫諘刱㏢瘢乱촔젚첿梊鰧ऴ䄌ꉽ묕퍞鶸�㓓䗂輀촴퍍ᜂꊸ귈霫⊲ﶶ狵蹠鄗㖲浭꽆ꦸ䥌饳⊿�鴁႖립썞�䜓遰錀흆袢戟䟓崚齫ﵘ슮茑×䚂℘ꜙ怀᪤拤燢ሀ쮚㩜䚒消怑嘰ཚ䁅�띶×䚕㥮欥ᗁ橦秏彛ྲ꺤ᢋ�ꢗ홎ᣮ져�흾⧢뜣Ẳ욠硷꺮⬭觋࠾ﺘ䲴땈ೀᄈꉧ᪲풌䳴ꦢ諡뛚翾চ詗⢚᭭ꟿ⥪鍌盟꠨ꈉ干覀뫘庞�櫘ꢝឬ멛沭髖ꦣ洯댫Ტ朚닙��骖겲រ痪�暢闊⚅窶夎ẗᅹ잢뷧寊暢隩㓇淺芊ₕ鬈궅⌓㸧泗캬ꏝ篫佷�ᯕ飼閬⯳켜ꉧ᪲�듊⟛녞潭㗯丹�듳䴏䤰쨠쒢
I have definitely seen this kind of output when one side is ASCII and the other side insists on reading the text as Unicode.
The recipient might have a problematic email client, or there could have been a random unicode character in the middle of ASCII text (like -- ugh -- "smart quotes") that threw something off.
You have nothing to worry about with your email security (at least not particular to this problem).
Unfortunately I am not sure how to direct you to fixing it other than first making sure the text you're sending is in the desired encoding...
posted by jozxyqk at 8:18 AM on February 27, 2017
The recipient might have a problematic email client, or there could have been a random unicode character in the middle of ASCII text (like -- ugh -- "smart quotes") that threw something off.
You have nothing to worry about with your email security (at least not particular to this problem).
Unfortunately I am not sure how to direct you to fixing it other than first making sure the text you're sending is in the desired encoding...
posted by jozxyqk at 8:18 AM on February 27, 2017
Agree with andrewesque - that's an encoding problem, not a translation problem.
Extremely, extremely simplified, when the information in your email is sent, it sends two things:
1) A code for each letter. The letters aren't exactly sent across the internet as letters, they're sent encoded (because that's how computers talk to each other). So for example, instead of sending "Hi", it might send "0048 0069"
2) A lookup guide (e.g. "hey, I'm using the Unicode Standard version 9.0").- There are a bunch of different encoding methods (several popular - such as Unicode & ASCII), so it has to say which codebook to use.
Then, when it gets to the other end, the thing receiving the email sees "0048 0069", checks which lookup guide it's supposed to use, and - if it's all worked correctly - translates that back to "Hi".
Somewhere between you and her, something about that information got messed up - either which code it was using or the values themselves - and on a character-by-character basis, it translated your message (or even possibly some headers in your message - not part that was supposed to be seen at all) into gibberish.
So it's not a security thing, and if it doesn't happen repeatedly I would just shrug and move on.
posted by brainmouse at 8:23 AM on February 27, 2017 [5 favorites]
Extremely, extremely simplified, when the information in your email is sent, it sends two things:
1) A code for each letter. The letters aren't exactly sent across the internet as letters, they're sent encoded (because that's how computers talk to each other). So for example, instead of sending "Hi", it might send "0048 0069"
2) A lookup guide (e.g. "hey, I'm using the Unicode Standard version 9.0").- There are a bunch of different encoding methods (several popular - such as Unicode & ASCII), so it has to say which codebook to use.
Then, when it gets to the other end, the thing receiving the email sees "0048 0069", checks which lookup guide it's supposed to use, and - if it's all worked correctly - translates that back to "Hi".
Somewhere between you and her, something about that information got messed up - either which code it was using or the values themselves - and on a character-by-character basis, it translated your message (or even possibly some headers in your message - not part that was supposed to be seen at all) into gibberish.
So it's not a security thing, and if it doesn't happen repeatedly I would just shrug and move on.
posted by brainmouse at 8:23 AM on February 27, 2017 [5 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by andrewesque at 8:10 AM on February 27, 2017 [5 favorites]