In Germany, Offensive Autocomplete Is No Laughing Matter

itwbennett writes "We've all had a chuckle over Google's autocomplete results for various search queries. But one German businessman had a less funny experience when he searched for his name on Google.de: The autocomplete suggested search terms where his name was tied with 'Scientology' and 'fraud' (in German, of course). This was back in 2010. In 2012, a German court ruled that the autocomplete terms did not infringe the plaintiff's privacy. Now, a year later, the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe has overturned that ruling and ordered that Google remove offensive search suggestions when notified."

Comments

Re:So autocomplete is supposed to read your mind?

[Aristos Mazer]

I think that's why the court required the "when notified" part. I don't agree, but at least it is feasible to implement.

Re:Personality rights

[PolygamousRanchKid]

In this case, googleing the name "Bettina Wulff" of the first lady would autocomplete to things like "escort" and "prostitute",

Hmmm . . . when I enter "Bettina Wulff" into amazon.de, it suggests to me:

Kunden, die Betinna Wulff gekauft haben, kauften auch: . . .