Enlarge (credit: maxshutter | iStock / Getty Images Plus )

After song lyrics website Genius sued Google in 2019 for allegedly breaching its terms of service by copying its lyrics transcriptions in search results, the United States Supreme Court invited the US solicitor general, Elizabeth Prelogar, to weigh in on how the US viewed the case. The question before Prelogar was whether federal copyright law preempted Genius' terms of service, which prohibits any of its website visitors from copying lyrics for commercial uses.

Yesterday, Prelogar responded, filing a brief that sided with Google. She denied that Genius' case was a good vehicle to test whether copyright law preempted state-law contract claims and recommended that the court deny Genius' petition to review the case.

The key issue was that Genius' terms of service may not be a valid contract, because website visitors don't have to directly agree to the website's terms and may not even be aware they exist. Because of this, Prelogar said it was unclear whether any court would find that Google—or any visitor to Genius' site—ever agreed to not copy the lyrics. Reviewing Genius' arguments, Prelogar said that the Supreme Court should not review the case because "there is little indication that any other court of appeals would reach a different outcome in this case."

Enlarge / Google's new "Blur" setting for SafeSearch will soon be the default, blurring explicit images unless you're logged in and over 18. (credit: Aurich Lawson)

Google has debuted a new default SafeSearch setting, somewhere between "on" and "off," that automatically blurs explicit images in search results for most people.

In a blog post timed to Safer Internet Day , Google outlined a number of measures it plans to implement to "protect democracies worldwide," secure high-risk individuals, improve password management, and protect credit card numbers. Tucked into a series of small-to-medium announcements is a notable change to search results, Google's second core product after advertising.

A new setting, rolling out "in the coming months," "will blur explicit imagery if it appears in Search results when SafeSearch filtering isn't turned on," writes Google's Jen Fitzpatrick, senior vice president of Core Systems & Experiences. "This setting will be the new default for people who don't already have the SafeSearch filter turned on, with the option to adjust settings at any time."

Enlarge / Google's personal information removal tool is available to more people lately, allowing you to at least attempt to have your physical or email address, phone number, or other identifying information removed from search results.

Google has been pushing out a tool for removing personally identifiable information —or doxxing content—from its search results. It's a notable step for a firm that has long resisted individual moderation of search content, outside of broadly harmful or copyright-violating material. But whether it works for you or not depends on many factors.

As with almost all Google features and products, you may not immediately have access to Google's new removal process. If you do, though, you should be able to click the three dots next to a web search result (while signed in), or in a Google mobile app, to pull up "About this result." Among the options you can click at the bottom of a pop-up are "Remove result." Take note, though, that this button is much more intent than immediate action—Google suggests a response time of "a few days."

Google's blog post about this tool , updated in late September, notes that "Starting early next year," you can request regular alerts for when your personal identifying information (PII) appears in new search results, allowing for quicker reporting and potential removal.