My Academic Name Used for a ¥500 Beauty Stylist Fee: AI Systems Reusing Deleted Data to Enable Persistent Digital Stalking
Full Statement
I would like to share a serious issue currently happening in Japan, involving
search result manipulation, misuse of personal identity, and unauthorized retention of deleted personal data
by a beauty-platform-related SEO operator and an AI search system.
My academic name is ASADA Misuzu,
the official Romanized name printed on my graduate certificates at Osaka University Graduate School.
This name represents my professional and academic identity.
However, since May 2025, a third party has repeatedly misused my name to forcefully associate it with a beauty-salon stylist profile on Hot Pepper Beauty, a major Japanese beauty platform owned by Recruit Holdings.
This problem escalated in February 2026.
What happened
Despite the fact that:
I deleted my old X (Twitter) profile 4–5 months ago,
my account is now private,
and the deleted posts contained no research content,
the AI “Overview Mode” of Google Search suddenly brought back the deleted profile and displayed it as if it were active, placing it next to the stylist’s page to damage my reputation.
Google previously informed me that “third parties are holding copies of your deleted data.”
This alone indicates unauthorized data retention.
This behavior constitutes:
Defamation
Damage to reputation through forced association with a commercial identity
Interference with professional activities (I run many academic blogs daily)
Privacy violation through the reuse of deleted information
Digital stalking / information-based harassment
I am a real person using an academic name with:
multiple academic blogs,
musicological publications,
volunteer experience for government agencies,
and long-term legal and cultural research.
All of these are publicly documented on my website:
https://2etw9.crayonsite.net/
Yet the AI system ignored my actual work and instead resurfaced deleted, irrelevant, and empty content to undermine my credibility and elevate the beauty-platform profile.
This is clear reputational damage and an intentional manipulation of search context.
Why this is serious
A commercial beauty platform should never be allowed to attach a person’s real name—especially an academic name used in formal credentials—to:
a 500-yen paid “name selection fee”
a stylist identity unrelated to the person
or any commercial ranking system.
This is not only unethical; it is defamatory and dangerous.
My request to the international community
In Japan, authorities, media, and platforms rarely confront large corporations such as Recruit, Rakuten, Google, or Dentsu.
Therefore, I am sharing this information in English so that researchers, journalists, and digital-rights advocates overseas may become aware of similar risks.
The issue is not merely personal.
It shows how:
AI-generated search summaries can spread fabricated context,
deleted data can be resurrected,
real identities can be forcibly linked to unrelated commercial actors,
and individuals can be algorithmically targeted by SEO operators.
If you recognize similar patterns in your region,
or if this case aligns with ongoing EU or U.S. discussions on AI governance and search fairness,
your awareness and support would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for reading.
Japan – Academic Blogger, Music Researcher, Local Guide (Lv.7)
YouTube Piano Performer / Cultural Studies Writer