Over 100 US Firms Join US-EU Privacy Shield Data Protection Deal

More than 100 US companies have signed up to join the EU-US Privacy Shield deal on data protection, enabling them to receive personal data from the bloc in compliance with EU standards, the European Commission said in a statement on Thursday.

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) – The deal took force on August 1, allowing for US firms that apply through the US Department of Commerce to be certified as meeting the Privacy Shield data protection requirements.

"Already 103 [US companies] have been certified. This means that these U.S. companies can receive personal data from the EU in full compliance with EU data protection rules," the statement reads.

The statement added that EU companies could "easily check" whether their US partner companies had been certified by checking the list published on the Privacy Shield’s website.

According to the statement, the US Department of Commerce is reviewing the privacy policies of 190 more US firms which have applied to join the deal, with further 250 firms currently being in the process of submitting their applications.

Washington and Brussels signed the Privacy Shield deal in February. The deal replaced the previous data protection agreement, dubbed the Safe Harbor, after the EU top court found the old arrangement was not sufficient to protect EU citizens’ personal data.