By Dana Heide 

About 40 companies have signed on to the new international data-protection agreement that allows U.S. companies to transfer data on European citizens to servers in the U.S.

A list of companies that have been deemed compliant with the requirements of the so-called Privacy Shield agreement was released on Friday by the International Trade Administration, an office of the U.S. Commerce Department that promotes exports. Microsoft Corp., Workday Inc. and Salesforce.com Inc. are among those named.

The list will be updated on a rolling basis, a Commerce Department spokesman said. "There are nearly 200 applications currently involved in our rigorous review process," he added.

Privacy Shield is the successor to an earlier agreement called Safe Harbor. More than 4,000 companies were certified for Safe Harbor before the European Court of Justice in October ruled that agreement invalid. The court's decision threw Safe Harbor signatories that hadn't made alternative arrangements suddenly out of compliance with EU data-protection requirements.

The Commerce Department started to accept Privacy Shield applications on Aug. 1. Certified companies must agree to follow the agreement's data-protection rules or else face sanctions.

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 12, 2016 18:09 ET (22:09 GMT)

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