Corporate seals have been used by companies to protect paper documents from forgery for a long time.  A document stamped with the company seal implied that it was officially from the company, i.e. the legal entity rather than a natural person such as the company director. 

It is challenging to write about Safe Harbor, the international data sharing agreement, because the situation is changing daily. A replacement framework was announced in early February. Five days later, scepticism and confusion followed.