A European Court of Justice ruling in May means anyone in Europe can now ask Google to hide links to sites with information about them – but only in search results for their own name.

Google began complying with the new rule at the beginning of July, providing a simple web form for anyone wanting to protect their privacy. Since then the search giant has received more than 70,000 requests.

Requests from France are in the lead, followed by Germany in second. The UK is third – and the BBC, the Guardian and Mail Online have all received notices of removed links.

In this week's podcast, we hear from one of the first UK journalists to have been on the receiving end of the new Google rule, a media law consultant who advises on what publishers can do to respond – and a digital rights activist explains the broader context.

This week's guests are:
  • Jason Collie, assistant editor of the Oxford Mail @ukcavhead
  • Cleland Thom, media law consultant, trainer and author of the 'Internet Law' handbook @ClelandThom
  • Joe McNamee, executive director of European Digital Rights, a civil rights group @EDRi_org

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