Japan Court to Google: Switch Off AutoComplete

A Japanese court has ruled in favor of a man who blames Google's autocomplete search function for his failure to find a job. The court ordered the search engine to switch off the feature for the man's name after hearing that when it was typed in, results connecting the man to crimes he didn't commit were automatically suggested, PC World reports. The man's lawyer argued that the function was violating his client's privacy.

Google, which argued that since the results are generated automatically, the function does not constitute a violation of privacy, says it is reviewing the court order. The court appears to have mistakenly believed that Google itself was directly suggesting the search results, writes Mike Masnick at TechDirt, noting that the man who complained about the feature has withheld his name—releasing it would have resulted in stories about how he's not a criminal rising to the top of results. (More Japan stories.)