European Firms Turn Privacy Into Sales Pitch

Many European cloud companies are hoping to take advantage of people’s growing appetite for online privacy. These European cloud operators have turned a particular focus on their local roots after the revelations by Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, about surveillance activities by American and British intelligence agencies. To lure customers, the companies are pointing out that their data centers are in the European Union, whose privacy laws are more stringent than those in the United States. Large companies like Deutsche Telekom, Germany’s former state telephone monopoly, as well as smaller start-ups, are trying to win market share from American rivals like Amazon that dominate the global cloud market.