Japanese Brings Google In Court For Its Auto-complete Feature

Google’s auto-complete feature — also known as Google Instant — is one of Google’s interesting and useful features. It lets a user find tricky search phrases and ensure him/her about the correct spelling. But who ever thought that, Google had to face court because of its auto-complete feature? A Japanese is reportedly suing Google for defamation, claiming that by typing his name into Google’s search box, it returns suggestions linking him with crimes which he hasn’t committed.


Google, Image Credit : cameroun.paleba.org

Google’s auto-complete feature is fabulous. Google knows as if like magic what people are searching for, even though people mis-spell something. But this auto-complete feature has cost this very Japanese man losing his job several years ago. Therefore for that unnamed Japanese man, Google Instant is not amusing at all. The man complaint that when he or someone searches for his name, the search engine’s auto complete function brings up words and phrases at least with 10,000 individual results related to criminal acts, which link through to articles defaming him.

The man believes that he lost his job few years ago for this auto-complete feature. The man asked Google to delete certain words from the feature before last October but Google refused the request and suggested that the autocomplete results were not violating privacy because they were automatically generated and merely depended on what was already available online. Finding no other way, the man filed his first lawsuit in March against the search giant Google. The man also claimed that Google will have to pay him compensation for the embarrassment they have caused.

The Tokyo court took the Japanese man’s side and ordered Google to suspend its auto-complete results. But, according to the Japan Times, Google refused to comply with the order and said that it “will not be regulated by Japanese law” and that “the case does not warrant deleting the auto-complete suggestions.”

Source : Dailymail

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Anatol

Anatol Rahman is the Editor at TheTechJournal. He loves complicated machineries, and crazy about robot and space. He likes cycling. Before joining TheTechJournal team, he worked in the telemarketing industry. You can catch him on Google+.

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