What is 'safe harbour' and why did the EUCJ just declare it invalid?

European Court of Justice rules 2000's data protection agreement with US invalid, but will that stop Facebook from transferring your EU data to America?

The European Court of Justice has ruled that the "safe harbour" agreement that allowed the transfer of European citizens data to the US is no longer valid. But what does that mean for the Facebooks, Googles and Microsofts of this world?

In a two-year-old case forced to the EU's highest court by Austrian privacy campaigner Max Schrems, the EUCJ ruled that the European Commission's trans-Atlantic data protection agreement that went into force in 2000 was invalid because it does not adequately protect consumers in the wake of the Snowden revelations.