Search engine giant Google has been ordered to immobilize its auto complete option by a Japanese court.
Confirming the happening the company said in a statement that “A Japanese court issued a provisional order requesting Google to delete specific terms from auto complete.”
The victim who took Google to court for breaching his privacy remained undisclosed.
He said Google’s generated suggestion linked him to crimes he did not commit.
The judge of the Tokyo District Court, however, did not ask the company to remove the auto complete function completely.
“The judge did not require Google to completely suspend the auto-complete function,” said Google. It said that it were “reviewing the order” of the court.
“It could lead to irretrievable damage such as a loss of job or bankruptcy just by showing search results that constitute defamation or a violation of the privacy of an individual person or small and medium-sized companies,” lawyer Hiroyuki Tomita told Japanese news agency Kyodo.
Google said,
“These searches are produced by a number of factors including the popularity of search terms.
Google does not determine these terms manually – all of the queries shown in auto complete have been typed previously by other Google users,” added the search engine giant.
