BBC News

A revised pact governing European Union-US data flows has been approved by European governments. The Privacy Shield agreement replaces the previous accord, called Safe Harbour, that was struck down in October 2015. Safe Harbour let US companies self-certify that they were doing enough to protect data about Europeans. The European Court of Justice threw out Safe Harbour after leaks showed data was being spied upon.

Member states of the European Commission have given "strong support" to the Privacy Shield said the European Commission's Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova. She said the approval paved the way for the formal adoption of the agreement early during the week of July 11. "The EU-US Privacy Shield will ensure a high level of protection for individuals and legal certainty for business," said Commissioner Jourova. "It is fundamentally different from the old Safe Harbour." The adoption of the Privacy Shield ends months of uncertainty for many tech companies such as Google and Facebook after the European court found the Safe Harbour agreement wanting. The agreement covers everything from personal information about employees to the detailed records of what people do online, which is often used to aid targeted advertising.