EU, US sign data protection deal

The word 'password' is pictured on a computer screen in this picture illustration taken in Berlin May 21, 2013. REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski

BRUSSELS: The European Union and the United States on June 2 signed a deal to protect personal data transferred across the Atlantic in a bid to fight crime and terrorism. 

The so-called umbrella agreement signed in the Dutch city of Amsterdam follows five years of talks hobbled by European concerns about revelations of large-scale US snooping.