Google: Beware Consumer Review Fraud
When a Web 2.0 Website that helps consumers “find the right lawyer” gets sued, by lawyers, does it impact Google?
YES, Because Google wants to help consumers “find the right doctor”!
Google VP of Engineering Adam Bosworth, also known as “Architect, Google Health,” believes it is the consumers’ right to “rate” health practitioners, online. Bosworth envisages the “looking up” of doctors to “see how others had fared,” under their care:
People really care about how they are treated by the doctors. Are they listened to? Is the doctor actually treating them as an adult and understanding their needs? All this could surface. Customers searching for information about doctors or conditions would discover this.
What about the integrity of doctor reviews? Bosworth:
How does one really know that these reviews came from people who were really treated by the doctors they say they were for the condition they say they have with the procedure or medicines they say?
Review “fraud” is an inherent risk of Web 2.0 ratings and reviews sites as commercial and personal motivations abound for individuals and companies to “game” systems to their direct advantage and to the purposeful disadvantage of others.
The negative societal impact of ratings and reviews manipulation is particualrly acute in the professional services realm where the health and welfare of citizens are at stake: medical and legal services.
Case in legal point: The class action complaint against the “Internet business that rates and refers lawyers,” Avvo, Inc. (and affiliated parties) filed this week in the Seattle United States District Court, by lead plaintiffs John Henry Browne and Alan Wenokur (both attorneys), alleges the Avvo lawyer profiles and ratings mislead consumers and “run contrary to the spirit of the ehtical rules governing the Washington State Bar Association.”
The Class Action is being brought by the lead plaintiffs on behalf of:
All persons who are licensed to practice law in the United States and who are listed on the Avvo site and given a numerical rating…Plaintiffs and other members of the Class have suffered damages as a result of Avvo’s unlawful and wrongful conduct.
The Cause of Action specifically alleged by the plaintiffs: “Violations of the Washington Consumer Protection Act” The Class Action seeks “permanent injunctive relief to enjoin firther violations of the law” and “such other and further relief as the Court may deem just and proper.”
What is the problem with Avvo? According to the complaint:
Avvo does not disclose the basis of its ratings,
Avvo has built the ability to game the Avvo rating system into the system,
Lawyers and others can manipulate the Avvo rating for themselves or other lawyers,
Avvo does not do anything to verify the information it gathers,
Lawyers risk damage to their professional reputation among consumers,
Avvo Ratings are capricious, arbitrary and susceptible to manipulation…
In sum, the Class Action lawsuit declares: “The Avvo rating and referral system is little more than a legal popularity contest.”
Unreliable “popularity contests” have the potential to negatively impact the provision of both legal and medical services: Untrustworthy ratings harm both practitioners and consumers.
Google’s “Health Architect” is aware of the high stakes of consumers reviews of phsyicicans. Bosworth:
Questions about how you find the information you need are deceptively simple. If they were about restaurants, they would be trivial. But they are actually matters of life and death in the extreme and quality of life in the common case. In short, they matter profoundly.