WASHINGTON - The US Senate on Tuesday passed a controversial bill aimed at promoting better cybersecurity information sharing between the private sector and the government.

The Senate voted 74 to 21 to approve the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), despite concerns over privacy from tech companies such as Apple.

The House approved its version of the bill in April, so the two versions will have to be reconciled before being signed into law by President Barack Obama.

A number of tech companies such as Apple, Yelp, and Dropbox, have publicly said they are against the bill.

"We don't support the current CISA proposal," Apple said in a statement to the Washington Post last week. "The trust of our customers means everything to us and we don't believe security should come at the expense of their privacy."