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Google told to halt auto-complete

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

21–30 of 50 posts

Re: Google told to halt auto-complete

#21
post #11

Do you know what kind of auto-completing Google should really halt? Spoilers. Do not type Game of Thrones character names on Google. EDIT. I'm really, really sorry. I didn't mean to spoil by implying that there are spoilers. I removed the character name.

Huh? I get "actress", "quotes" and "imdb".

You missed the last space after her name.

Re: Google told to halt auto-complete

#22
A couple of points based on reading Japanese news reports: The reports are vague (at least to me) as to whether the injunction covers autocomplete itself or just the particular result. They say Google was ordered to stop the 表示 (hyouji, lit. 'display'), which I think could mean either, but seems more likely to mean the particular result (otherwise I suspect they would have said 'function'). In any case, it should be noted that all the reports seem to be based on a press conference by the plaintiff's lawyer, not on any court documents. Also, the English reports are reporting it as an injunction, but the Japanese sources have 仮処分 (kari-shobun, an interlocutory injunction), i.e. this is a temporary order and the case itself is probably still ongoing.

(I am not a native Japanese speaker, but professional J>E translator with legal translation experience)

Re: Google told to halt auto-complete

#23

Did Google even defend against this in the Japanese court? I don't understand how this could get by if they did. The fact is that names are not unique. Would he be complaining if his namesake was a renowned scientist / businessman / whatever? Just because someone with his name is linked to crime does not mean that he is. It simply means that someone with a similar or same name is known for their criminality. I don't…

Your name may not be unique. That's not necessarily true for everyone else.

Given the prevalence of search, I would not be surprised at all if employers (more specifically recuriters) did a search and discard. It does not mean it's right or ethnical. But afaik there are no legal ramifications currently. Which is unfortunate.

Re: Google told to halt auto-complete

#24
post #19

I am starting to regret that I gave my child only two first names. What would be a reasonable number for the future? Maybe 10, or even 100? The idea being that you can switch your "official" name easily...

Simple, just use your SSN as an identifier. That will secure your identity :)

Re: Google told to halt auto-complete

#25

Auto-complete is just a subset of search. Why is it more offensive to type "john smith" and get the suggestion "serial killer" than search "john smith" and have the first three results being about John Smith, the serial killer, and only getting to John Smith, the mountaineer and cat lover, in position four?

I think that one valid argument could be if people searching for this guy were commonly using a term like "John Smith Gym Teacher" they would likely never see the results for "John Smith Serial Playground Rapist". Or, at the very least the playground rapist results would be so far down the list that they would naturally be mostly disregarded. But, in this case the fact that "Playground Rapist" results are more common than the "Gym Teacher" results it could be argued that this skews the perception of John Smith in peoples minds.

Re: Google told to halt auto-complete

#26

Auto-complete is just a subset of search. Why is it more offensive to type "john smith" and get the suggestion "serial killer" than search "john smith" and have the first three results being about John Smith, the serial killer, and only getting to John Smith, the mountaineer and cat lover, in position four?

Auto-complete is just a subset of search.

Is that true? Or are auto-complete suggestions merely additional terms that are part of popular search queries (but not necessarily search results)?

Re: Google told to halt auto-complete

#28
post #6

"Google has responded to the man's complaints by saying that since the results are compiled automatically there is no intrusion of privacy" It's hard to see how this case is about privacy - it seems like it's really about defamation, however the real details aren't disclosed. That said, the argument that because something is done by a machine the operators are not responsible for the consequences needs to be debunked…

Yes. The "nothin' to do with me, guv, it's the algorithm's fault" attitude is disingenuous and unhelpful.

Re: Google told to halt auto-complete

#29

Auto-complete is just a subset of search. Why is it more offensive to type "john smith" and get the suggestion "serial killer" than search "john smith" and have the first three results being about John Smith, the serial killer, and only getting to John Smith, the mountaineer and cat lover, in position four?

Auto-complete is just a subset of search. Is that true? Or are auto-complete suggestions merely additional terms that are part of popular search queries (but not necessarily search results)?

It's a meta-search, in a sense. A search for search queries.

Re: Google told to halt auto-complete

#30
post #6

"Google has responded to the man's complaints by saying that since the results are compiled automatically there is no intrusion of privacy" It's hard to see how this case is about privacy - it seems like it's really about defamation, however the real details aren't disclosed. That said, the argument that because something is done by a machine the operators are not responsible for the consequences needs to be debunked…

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.

I found this quite funny given all the recent events regarding domain names, MegaUpload, PirateBay, MAFIAA etc etc. Now if only the US would take the same view and leave the rest of the world alone...

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