Next appointment Dick Cheney
As sysadmin for Google.
Dropbox has been hit with a firestorm of criticism after announcing that Iraq war architect Condoleezza Rice has joined its board. The cloud-based file-sharing service said it was "honored to be adding someone as brilliant and accomplished as Dr. Rice to our team". However, the internet has lit up with anger over the decision …
But the problem is, most people use Dropbox as a temporary solution to transfer files between devices and PC in lieu of the manufacturers making a universal standard to allow that to happen. For example, sending photos taken on my fondleslab to my Blackberry- the only common file transfer protocol that exists between this two is Dropbox. The blackberry can't use Airdrop, Google Drive or iCloud, and the fondleslab doesn't support Bluetooth OBEX and Bluetooth FTP. Yes, Blackberry could've built in Google Drive access to their file manager like they did with Dropbox (and it would've been useful too since the device also comes with Documents to Go), but didn't for whatever reason.
On that, I suppose I should start looking for a different way to send files from my fondleslab to my PC or Blackberry. Stupid Apple, I normally use Bluetooth OBEX...
Am i wrong to think that the MPAssA and RIAssA now has unrestricted access to my dropbox now that this idiot is onboard?
Nothing to fear, nothing to hide?
That worked so well for Richard Jewell*, didn't it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jewell
a police officer, working part time as a security guard, He saved lives by evacuating people after finding a terrorist bomb.
Since they had no suspects at the time, authorities kept leaking hints to the press that he did it, wrecked his life and career for years.
You don't have to be guilty, they just need enough info on you to tar you with suspicion, the press'll do the rest.
*Just the first one to come to mind, he's not an isolated example.
Moreover, many libertarian leaning conservatives are supporters of free speech, free press, freedom from warrantless search, etc. Knee Jerks insist on attempting to stampede the ignorati with words when technically enforceable design features for web securitity are at hand. Condi Rice has an expert grasp of what technology can do. Mastery of technology, not bloviating brought down the Soviet Union.
If the Soviet Union is no more it is because the best rhetoric cannot fill an empty stomach, not can it make widespread corruption invisible.
The Soviet Union imploded on itself due to financial mismanagement and blatantly well-known underhanded dealings on a national scale. Even if the hadn't been a Cold War to funnel even more precious resources into a mad bomb race, the USSR would have undoubtedly crashed because of its own internal instability.
Sync.com is a Canadian cloud storage provider with data stored in a Canadian datacenter. Their client encrypts the data before sending it up to the cloud. They claim not to be able to decrypt the data.
They are still in beta, however, and mobile clients to not exist. It is $50/yr for 500GB. Sync.com now has a new paid subscriber.
Not perfect, but a hell of a lot better than Torture'n'murder's happy fun time NSAbox.
"For the record, just talked to the Sync.com folks. Yes, all client data is in Toronto. The main website proper is on Amazon, but once they have gotten some things sorted locally, that will be going into their refurbed Canadian datacenter too."
This might be the first (but I doubt the last) reaction to the admission the NSA spy on everyone.
I think the ultimate challenge for a secure cloud system would be to allow search/query/update of a database whose records are encrypted.
Sadly I have no idea of how to make that work.
What did Rice do for DropBox or top people there to land a cushy deal.
With the potential for this controversy is it unreasonable to suspect this is the price dropbox must pay for past favors. What did DropBox give up for having to give Condi a cushy job?
As if Ms Rice would care if this hurts DropBox or not.
> What did Rice do for DropBox or top people there to land a cushy deal.
She was a powerful politician. That's all you need to be to be extremely useful to a company, because it means you can help the company influence legislation. Let's say Dropbox _doesn't_ want NSA in its servers: Having Rice on board would make that a lot easier to achieve, because she knows the legislators, she knows who the right guy to talk to is, and she's got friends and favors to call.
No offense to you, but I'm amazed and a bit scared to see how ignorant The Regs users appear to be about how governments work, and how companies influence policy -- because this is no different from how it is in the UK. Every former politician gets hired by a company here too, for the same reason. And the company doesn't care about the politicians former policies, they care about how powerful the politician is. Rice is very powerful in the GOP.
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Nearly all politicians get employed by companies after their terms, and the reason the companies hire them isn't because they want a politician to help them design their products, it's because they want a conduit to the halls of power.
Rice still knows everyone worth knowing, she's got clout and influence. Dropbox will use Rice to influence legislation in Dropbox' favor, it's not the other way around.
Rice is a war criminal. Part of the Bush Gang of Four. I wouldn't trust or do business with any company that hires her. For the citizen, Dropbox cannot telegraph more clearly that it is bed with spying and that your data is not safe with them. For the government, Dropbox cannot be telegraphing more clearly that it wants a CIA or NSA contract.
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"we are having a great national conversation and debate about exactly how to manage privacy concerns".
No debate about total unwarranted surveillance of US citizens. No, only about how to MANAGE PRIVACY CONCERNS. In her own words, they're only concerned with how to make us worry less about having our privacy raped away.
Yeah, great choice. "Special Counsel on Minimizing Public Reaction to Privacy Violations".