[WhitneyLand]

For anyone else curious.

I'm not sure, but a cursory search suggests it's perfectly fine to publicly lie about a private citizen with no recourse, as long as you avoid financial or related damages?

"In order to determine the damages from a slander or libel suit, there must be quantifiable damages. Defamation of character damages a person’s or company’s reputation, and it must be proven that the damage to reputation correlated with a loss of money, property, relationship or was subject to harassment that led to any of the above losses."

https://thelawdictionary.org/article/when-to-sue-for-defamat...

[greenyoda]

It may be "perfectly fine" in terms of legal repercussions, but there are also ethical considerations. If someone knowingly makes false statements about someone else, they would rightfully be regarded as unethical and untrustworthy.

[WhitneyLand]

You're very sweet. How about telling them something like...

Pardon me, Mr. Google and Mr. <consider who you're dealing with in these scenarios>, how are you sir? Would you kindly consider not publishing false statements about me?

Of course you may not be compelled to do so. However as a gentleman I'm sure you would ageee the ethical and trust implications are philosophically untenable. Therefore I assume you are intrinsically highly motivated to immediately take corrective action. Thank you!

Regarding the first sentence, please take it at face value. If that's your point of view I'd be glad to count you as a friend if you'd have me - ping anytime.

However, I'd probably not guess well how long Ehud will have to remain an Israeli computer scientist.

[robbrown451]

Or, how about blogging about it, and having internet discussions about it that cause Google to realize that this is negatively impacting their image to the public, and that that in itself can be costly enough to them to change their approach, even if not compelled to do so by a court?

Which is exactly what happened here. (whether they change their course is yet to be seen)