Japan court orders Google to halt auto-complete

[Tank]

Japan court orders Google to halt auto-complete

Tokyo District Court approved a petition by the man, who claimed typing his name into the search engine generated a suggestion linking him to crimes he did not commit, lawyer Hiroyuki Tomita told media Sunday.

If a user accepts the search suggestion, thousands of results are produced that imply criminality of which the man is not guilty, Tomita said.

The lawyer added that since these postings began appearing on the Internet over the last few years, his client has had difficulty finding work, with his online reputation always in question.

Auto-complete is a function provided by many search engines that predicts what a user may be looking for. It is often based on what previous users have searched for when they typed the same initial letters of a word.

The details of this case are not known, but it is possible that the plaintiff shares a name with someone who is legitimately associated with a crime.

Tomita said the auto-complete function was problematic because it guides users to sites that may contain false or misleading information.

Google has responded to the man's complaints by saying that since the results are compiled automatically there is no intrusion of privacy, Tomita said.

The petition was approved by the court on March 19, but Google has so far refused to take action, saying Japanese law does not apply to its US headquarters and its own corporate privacy policy, Tomita told reporters.

The man may seek financial damages in a bid to press Google to erase the suggested search, said Tomita, who was trained in California and has taken on many Internet-related cases, including online reputation issues.

Google did not immediately respond to AFP enquiries about the case, but has told Japanese network NHK that it was considering its response.

I bet the Fred Wests of this world hope this goes through 

[DeterminedJuliet]

It's a far concern, in this day and age. I frequently "google" myself to see what comes up - the only thing that comes up that's discernibly "me" is my linkedin account, which I'm okay with the world seeing. I've worked for employers who've had me look up potential candidates on Facebook to check them out, so you really can't be too careful with that sort of thing.

My maiden name used to bring up a photographer. Which, again, isn't so bad. I can see why, if there was a notorious criminal that popped up right away, you might want to change things, though.

[Ali]

I guess I don't see how removing auto-complete would help this man if he shares the same name of a criminal.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but if employers typed the name into any browser (regardless of autocomplete) wouldn't they pull up the articles and what not about the other guy of the same name anyway, regardless of whether the browser autocompleted the name?

[Tank]

I guess I don't see how removing auto-complete would help this man if he shares the same name of a criminal.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but if employers typed the name into any browser (regardless of autocomplete) wouldn't they pull up the articles and what not about the other guy of the same name anyway, regardless of whether the browser autocompleted the name?

I would have thought so too.