The ethical dimensions of Google autocomplete

Abstract

What questions should we ask of Google’s Autocomplete suggestions? This article highlights some of the key ethical issues raised by Google’s automated suggestion tool that provides potential queries below a user’s search box. Much of the discourse surrounding Google’s suggestions has been framed through legal cases in which complex issues can become distilled into black-and-white questions of the law. For example, do Google have to remove a particular suggestion and do they have to pay a settlement for damages? This commentary argues that shaping this discourse along primarily legal lines obscures many of these other moral dimensions raised by Google Autocomplete. Building from existing typologies, this commentary first outlines the legal discourse before exploring five additional ethical challenges, each framed around a particular moral question in which all users have a stake. Written in the form of a commentary, the purpose of this article is not to conclusively answer the ethical questions raised, but rather to give an account of why these particular questions are worth debating. Autocomplete’s suggestions are not simply a mirror of what users are typing into Google’s search bar. Google’s official statement is that “Autocomplete is a time-saving but complex feature. It doesn’t simply display the most common queries on a given topic” but “also predict[s] individual words and phrases that are based on both real searches as well as word patterns found across the web” (Google, 2022). Both its underlying methods and associated terminology have changed throughout time, shifting between providing completions, suggestions, and predictions. In doing so, the grounds for potential critique are ever-changing, which means that Google’s approach to Autocomplete deserves significant scrutiny.