Online privacy is talk of the town. More importantly, it is the want of the town.

Microsoft’s lawyer said that the company’s cloud computing services has met Europe’s stringent data-protection rules and he used the news as a way to woo potential new customers. Microsoft is the only company so far to receive such approval

“For customers who care about privacy and compliance, there is no more committed partner than Microsoft,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, said.

In January, Smith had announced that the company was deepening its commitment to allow customers to decide where their information is stored, in part because of concerns about spying by the NSA. Thus, this is the second time this year that Microsoft has tried to distinguish itself in the highly competitive cloud computing industry from rivals like Amazon and IBM.
This new data-protection legislation could have major financial implications for US tech companies.

For example, international companies with European customers would have to comply with strengthened privacy controls or face fines totaling 2 to 5% of global revenues, or $138 million, whichever is greater.

By showing that it already complies with Europe’s strict privacy and data-protection rules, the tech company is hoping that it can separate itself from other companies caught up in the Snowden scandal.

“We hope that our European customers won’t look at our nationality, but at the commitments we have made around data protection,” Smith said.