Japanese Court Orders Google To Turn Off Auto-Complete Function

An anonymous reader writes with news that a Tokyo District Court has granted its approval to a petition seeking to force Google to turn off the auto-complete feature for its search engine. "The petition against Google was filed by a Japanese man who claims the feature breached his privacy and eventually led to the loss of his job. According to the man, whose name has been withheld, when his name is typed into the Google search engine auto-complete suggests words associated with criminal behavior. And when those suggested searches are clicked, over 10,000 results are shown that disparage or defame him. According to the plaintiff, this negative Google footprint has prevented him from finding employment since his initial firing several years ago." Unfortunately for him, "Google has rejected the order, saying that its U.S. headquarters will not be regulated by Japanese law, and that the case, according to its in-house privacy policy, does not warrant deleting autocomplete-suggested terms related to the petition, lawyer Hiroyuki Tomita said Sunday."

Comments

Re:What goes around comes around

[chill]

Because the servers that were seized were in Virginia?

Instant is next

[Anonymous Coward]

Great, now can we get a restraining order on the Live search feature too? It's giving me mental anguish

Whaaaaaaaat?

[JustAnotherIdiot]

You mean that out of the 7 billion people on this planet, there might be one with the same name? And he might be a criminal? GASP.
No, what am I saying? That's crazy talk. Only one person can have that name, so clearly he did all those terrible things.
Secretary? Go fire that guy in cubicle 3. Google said he's a criminal.

Re:Whaaaaaaaat?

[jeffmeden]

You mean that out of the 7 billion people on this planet, there might be one with the same name? And he might be a criminal? GASP.

No, what am I saying? That's crazy talk. Only one person can have that name, so clearly he did all those terrible things.

Secretary? Go fire that guy in cubicle 3. Google said he's a criminal.

Just because his name is Brutal Killingspree doesn't mean he should instantly and permanently be associated with heinous crimes on the internet. Come on, talk about unreasonable.

Re:What goes around comes around

[SJHillman]

Not according to Google

http://www.google.com/about/datacenters/locations/index.html

Let's see if I understand

[cpu6502]

The guy has a name. When you time the first 3-4 letters of the name, google autocompletes the name with a Crime word, which links to 10,000 entries about said crime. And the HR lady who is looking at this results thinks the guy is a criminal, so she puts his resume in the reject pile.

I don't see how that is Google's fault. That's the fault of stupid HR ladies who don't know how to do a proper search (i.e. finish typing the guy's name).

Re:Let's see if I understand

[jandrese]

I guess this is a lesson for any prospective parents out there: Don't name your child Pedophil or Murdebby.

Re:What goes around comes around

[MasterMan]

Not datacenter, but they have local offices, which is even more substantial. They have corporate presence in the country.

Re:What goes around comes around

[NewWorldDan]

They have .jp domain names that could potentially be siezed. That would be highly disruptive. I'm sure that they also have assets in Japanese banks and do business inside the country. In short, they have plenty of assets under the jurisdiction of Japanese courts should they fail to comply with the court's order. Not being an expert on the local laws of Japan, I can't tell you how relevant the location of the physical server is, but I'd bet it's not that important to the case at hand.

Corrections

[Enderandrew]

1. There are international treaties and laws governing copyright enforced by Interpol.
2. Please point me to a single official statement from the White House or American ambassador on this
3. Assange has never been charged with a crime in the US. The US has not filed for his extradition. Megaupload had severs in the US that broke US law.
4. If you do business in a country you are bound by those laws. Google had to abide by Chinese laws in China for example. So they shifted traffic to servers in Hong Kong where laws are different. This isn't a difficult concept and it is global.
5. You've made a litany of unfounded, untrue statements.

You would be correct if you suggested that the US government has encouraged nations to pass copyright protection laws. But even in doing so, they acknowledge that each country has its own legal jurisdiction and legal system. The United States arguably doesn't have any exports nearly as important as IP, so the government tries to protect those interests in negotiating with other nations. It is in the best interest that they do so.