You start typing one letter and within seconds, Google already comes up with a list of words or phrases it thinks you’re searching for. Some find it helpful or annoying, some amusing as the phrases might be completely bizarre and irrelevant to what you want. Beverly Stayart, a genealogy scholar from Wisconsin, found that once she typed her name Bev Stayart, Google automatically suggested “bev stayart levitra”. The search for the latter led to numerous ads of treatments for male erectile dysfunction. Stayart brought a lawsuit against Google in violating privacy and using her name to generate sales. The suit was dismissed.
In conclusion, the judge announced that this particular connection between her name and the product is purely incidental, it is NOT against the law “for Google to use someone’s name for the purpose of communicating information.” One doesn’t know what to think: whether it is too much for a woman to sue the search engine for an unintentional connection, or for Google to have full rights to use your name to connect to information it is probably going to undoubtedly assume relates to who you are.
Another fun fact making this lawsuit invalid is that Google doesn’t receive any value from connecting the woman’s name to a sponsored link. Sure, it may be a complete coincidence that the treatment products come up as a result, but Google still receives a percentage of profit from every time someone clicks on a sponsored source. There is still a connection between generating earnings and using someone’s name. This story just makes me wonder, is there no longer a way to protect your privacy from search engines, who are allowed to manipulate your name into any profiting scheme as long as it seems accidental? On the other hand, this particular woman may have just been unlucky with her name AND in court, as she previously attempted to sue Yahoo! and Various, Inc. for the same reasons. Both lawsuits unsuccessful.
Full story: http://gazettextra.com/news/2013/mar/08/elkhorn-woman-loses-internet-privacy-lawsuit-again/
What’s funny is that the more she pursues this strategy of lawsuits, the more her name will be linked with those products.
The more we sign up and join social networks, the more our names and pictures will be out there available for the world to see. Many of us join these social networks or join web blogs without reading the Terms of Use, and then go ahead and wonder how and why their name or photos comes up in a simple Google search. In this article I feel Google does make a strong case that this was completely coincidental and “accidental.” There is just so much out there on the web to see, that it’s not out of the norm to find something with you name in it but has nothing to do with you. In this case Google is generating profits which is unjust. In cases such as this, I feel SOME profit should go to Beverly. Haha.
I commend this woman for attempting to sue those major corporations so many times. I don’t think it is purely incidental that her name is linked up with the ads for erectile dysfunction. I believe Google knows exactly what it is doing and it is unwise of us to assume otherwise. Nothing that generates a money-making machine is done by coincidence. Secondly, Google makes a huge profit from accessing our information and assuming they know who we are and what we like and what we are most likely to buy; essentially, they make money off of us. In the case of Beverly Stayart, if this woman’s name truly added nothing to their pockets, then why not simply remove the automatic affiliation between her name and erectile dysfunction?