[zaphar]

    The problem here isn't what degree the engineer had. 
    The problem is more about conscientiousness. 
    Whoever did that system, does not care.

I can see how you might have gotten that idea but having worked at Google in the Past let me suggest an alternative explanation. Personally Identifiable Data is heavily policed at Google. It's possible that the problem was less how much the engineer cared and more a lack of access to that data for some reason.

[natch]

Thanks. I actually did think of that explanation. But it doesn't hold up under scrutiny. Google Voice, of all services, is exactly the kind of service that should be able to access the user's contacts, for things like dialing and showing the names on incoming phone calls. Super hard to believe that's an issue. And if the permission isn't there, it's easy to ask for it. And if not, just use a generalized list of names.

Yes silly me for focusing on contacts. They could have just built a general name dictionary for various languages. If they cared to. But (judging by the poor recognition performance of the system) that doesn't seem to have happened, at least the last time I used the service, which admittedly was some time ago.