A new agreement on the transfer of EU air passengers’ personal data to the US authorities was approved by the European Parliament on Thursday. The deal sets legal conditions and covers issues such as storage periods, use, data protection safeguards and administrative and judicial redress. The agreement will replace a provisional deal in place since 2007.Under the new agreement, US authorities will keep PNR data in an active database for up to 5 years. After the first 6 months, all information which could be used to identify a passenger would be “depersonalized”, meaning that data such as the passenger’s name or her/his contact information would be codified.Source: EU Parliament News; for further details look here>>.