Inconvenience that sex crime victims' real names are exposed by Google search related keywords and autocomplete

Sensitive information, such as the real name of the victim of sexual crime, is required to be treated with privacy. However, there are indications that the real names of rape victims have leaked out in an unintended form by accessibility functions such as "autocomplete" and "related keywords" adopted in Google search.

Google 'identifies rape victims' | News | The Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/google-identifies-rape-victims-k9slpxmns

In Google search, as a function for improving the convenience of user's search, "Auto Complete" which complements the search phrase which is expected in the middle of character input, "Related keyword" suggesting a phrase considered to be highly relevant, etc. Has been adopted.


According to The Times, real names of victims of sexual crimes such as those who were raped are automatically displayed by auto complete function etc. It seems that there is a problem that it will be done.

In the verification experiment, Google search was done after preparing a plurality of terminals with no search history so that search results are not affected. Then, when entering a general search phrase together with the name of the defendant of a certain women violence case, the name of the victim's woman was displayed at the last candidate of autocomplete. In addition, there are cases where the name of the victim and the hometown are displayed by inputting the name of the accused and a simple word, and cases where the name of the rape appears in the related keyword when searching for the name of the victim That's right.

It is also confirmed that, other than sexual crime, when a necessary word for searching for a violent crime case is entered, the name of the accused and his / her place of origin, which should have been reported anonymously, are displayed as related keywords . After the experiment, The Times reports to Google that it will display the real name.


In the UK, anonymity (right not to be published names) is guaranteed to a wide extent, including victims of sexual crime, criminal defendants under 18 and victims of cases fought at family court. For example, a person claiming a victim in a sex crime case is given anonymity for the lifetime, even if the accused receives an innocence, and the act of infringing on this anonymity is a crime and it is up to 5000 pounds ( About 750,000 yen) is fined.

Nonetheless, because SNS, blogs etc can not completely stop the act of writing the name of person whose anonymity is guaranteed on the Internet by individuals, the real names etc. appearing on the net are based on the search result It is something that is often excluded from. However, Google's autocomplete and related keywords, which have not been subject to deletion requests, are not sufficient for consideration of privacy by algorithms, and personal information such as real names of crime victims and accused in an unexpected way It seems that it is displayed.

In response to an indication that Google's search function unexpectedly displays real names etc., Google spokeswoman said that "Google never tolerates autocomplete features and related search features that violate laws and Google's own policy We deleted the cases that were found, and also extended the exclusion policy to prevent the prediction function from covering the victims of violence and cruel crime. If you notice the inconvenience, I'd like to inform you about the information, "he said.