[WhoBeI]

The agreement that was in place allowed US businesses to self certify and then sign a voluntary list at the US Dept. of Commerce which made them untouchable in the EU.

Why? Well, because the agreement says so and because any legal proceedings would be in the US according to the agreement and enforced "primarily by the private sector". Because that makes sense right? Courts, lawyers and laws are so boring anyways...

This change means that EU countries can now question the claim and act if it's a lie. Since EU is moving to harmonize data storage laws among it's member countries there won't be any bureaucratic mess only a return of citizen rights.

[0] http://www.export.gov/safeharbor/eu/eg_main_018476.asp

[EDIT] Ah, yes, the data storage location thing. That's mainly a consequence of the NSA thingy. Thanks to that no US company can any longer fully claim that any data stored in the US can be kept private. It's kind of silly since everybody spies on everybody else but the US got caught.