[254] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] Extending Google Blacklists for Dispute Resolutions
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (privacy@vortex.com)
Sun Jun 17 20:46:00 2007
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Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2007 16:46:10 -0700
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Extending Google Blacklists for Dispute Resolutions
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000254.html
Greetings. In ( http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000253.html )
I discussed some issues regarding search engine dispute resolution,
and posed some questions about the possibility of "dispute links"
being displayed with search results to indicate serious disputes
regarding the accuracy of particular pages, especially in cases of
court-determined defamation and the like.
While many people appear to support this concept in principle, the
potential operational logistics are of significant concern. As I
originally acknowledged, it's a complex and tough area, but that
doesn't make it impossible to deal with successfully either.
Some others respondents have taken the view that search engines
should never make "value judgments" about the content of sites,
other than that done (which is substantial) for result ranking
purposes.
What many folks may not realize is that in the case of Google at
least, such more in-depth judgments are already being made, and it
would not necessarily be a large leap to extend them toward
addressing the dispute resolution issues I've been discussing.
Google already puts a special tag on sites in their results which
Google believes contain damaging code ("malware") that could disrupt
user computers. Such sites are tagged with a notice that "This
website may damage your computer." -- and the associated link is not
made active (that is, you must enter it manually or copy/paste to
access that site -- you cannot just click).
Also, in conjunction with Google Toolbar and Firefox 2, Google
collects user feedback about suspected phishing sites, and can
display warnings to users when they are about to access
potentially dangerous sites on these lists.
In both of these cases, Google is making a complex value judgment
concerning the veracity of the sites and listings in question, so it
appears that this horse has already left the barn -- Google apparently
does not assert that it is merely a neutral organizer of information
in these respects.
So, a site can be tagged by Google as potentially dangerous because
it contains suspected malware, or because it has been reported by
the community to be an apparent phishing site. It seems reasonable
then for a site that has been determined (by a court or other
agreed-upon means) to be containing defaming or otherwise seriously
disputed information, to also be potentially subject to similar
tagging (e.g. with a "dispute link").
Pages that contain significant, purposely false information,
designed to ruin people's reputations or cause other major harm, can
be just as dangerous as phishing or malware sites. They may not be
directly damaging to people's computers, but they can certainly be
damaging to people's lives. And presumably we care about people at
least as much as computers, right?
So I would assert that the jump to a Google "dispute links"
mechanism is nowhere near as big a leap from existing search engine
results as it may first appear to be.
In future discussion on this topic, I'll get into more details of
specific methodologies that could be applicable to the
implementation of such a dispute handling system, based both within
the traditional legal structure and through more of a "Web 2.0"
community-based topology.
But I wanted to note now that while such a search engine dispute
resolution environment could have dramatic positive effects, it is
fundamentally an evolutionary concept, not so much a revolutionary one.
More later. Thanks as always.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com or lauren@pfir.org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, IOIC
- International Open Internet Coalition - http://www.ioic.net
Founder, CIFIP
- California Initiative For Internet Privacy - http://www.cifip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
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