Court Rules Google Not Liable for Weird Autocompletes
Woman didn't like drug references showing up when her name was typed in
Have you ever heard of a Wisconsin woman named Beverly Stayart? Unless you follow semi-obscure legal cases or live in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, the answer is probably no.
Stayart is a middle-aged woman who describes herself on her Tumblr page as the "CFO and Director of Business Development for Stayart Law Offices." For years now, her name has popped up alongside listings for drugs such as Cialis and links to websites hosting malware in search results on various search engines (including Alta Vista, Yahoo, and even AdultFriendFinder) as an apparent result of search engine optimization algorithms and auto-complete. As a result, she's pursued lawsuits against these companies, arguing that they have violated her right to privacy by misappropriating her name and serving up ads or auto-suggesting search terms around her name.