back to article Spy-happy Condoleezza Rice joins Dropbox board as privacy adviser

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 …

COMMENTS

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  1. mraak

    Next appointment Dick Cheney

    As sysadmin for Google.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Coat

      Re: Next appointment Dick Cheney

      Or CEO of Microsoft...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Next appointment Dick Cheney

        Couldn't do any worse than microsoft have been doing without his help.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Easy to beef up the privacy of Drobox, Google Drive, etc

      Just encrypt your stuff seamlessly prior to putting it on a crap, er, Cloud Drive by using Ncryptedcloud or similar.

      1. RAMChYLD

        Re: Easy to beef up the privacy of Drobox, Google Drive, etc

        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?

    3. Julian Taylor

      Re: Next appointment Dick Cheney

      How about Bush joining the board of Adobe? With his immense finger-painting talents he could lead Photoshop in a new direction ...

  2. AbelSoul

    Rice *and* Jam?

    Might seem tasty now but they'll regret it in the morning.....

  3. NoneSuch Silver badge

    "I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

    1. Vector

      re: I will not...

      Oh, were that it could be true. Enjoy life in your cave...

  4. Creamy-G00dness

    Double D

    Two D's in Vedder.

    Loving the quote about the Jew outreach program, much laughter!

  5. Mark 85
    Unhappy

    I could have be a good plan

    If they only decide to do the opposite of what of she says. Otherwise... pffffffft.

  6. JimmyPage Silver badge
    Pirate

    A chance for internet democracy ...

    Maybe if enough people *really* closed their accounts, in reaction to such moves, there would be some power to the people ...

    1. mraak

      Re: A chance for internet democracy ...

      Why? That would be like ousting Firefox CEO for his political views... Oh wait...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: A chance for internet democracy ...

        "Why? That would be like ousting Firefox CEO for his political views"

        No. The Firefox thing was silly, unlike this stupidity.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Who's going to be the next appointed, George Bush?

    What could be better than the "architect" of the war?

  8. btrower

    Ballsy

    Wow, the people secretly funding DropBox have got quite the cojones. They are just coming flat out and saying they own your ass.

    The days of buying us dinner beforehand are long gone.

  9. Gordon 10

    Late April fools?

    How could anyone be that out of touch with their user base?

    1. Euripides Pants
      Joke

      Re: out of touch with their user base

      Hey, it worked for Microsoft...

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What's the big deal?

    Some folks act like spying is a bad thing. If you're a crim well yes then it might be for you. For everyone else it's a proper part of national security which all countries employ.

    1. hplasm
      FAIL

      Re: What's the big deal?

      Got a toilet door, AC?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What's the big deal?

      > For everyone else it's a proper part of national security which all countries employ.

      S. T. F. U.

    3. Captain DaFt

      Re: What's the big deal?

      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.

    4. Kane
      Trollface

      Re: What's the big deal?@ AC

      gr8 b8 m8!

  11. Jim 59

    Dropbox Privacy Advisor ?

    It's the Dropbox users who need the advice, not Dropbox.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Dropbox Privacy Advisor ?

      I deleted my account in February after changes to their Ts and Cs. Owncloud for me.

  12. ecofeco Silver badge

    What do I keep saying about the cloud?

    So... how's that cloud thing working for ya?

  13. jnffarrell1

    Conservatives Are Not Stupid

    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.

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      Re: 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.

      1. MondoMan
        Devil

        Re: internal contradictions were the only thing that brought down the Soviet Union...

        Yes, just like with Lukashenko's Belarus.

        Oh, wait.....

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    partisan BS

    if they announce Obama or Pelosi, who deliberately went out of their way to promote and expand all these same programs, the haters would be celebrating.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: partisan BS

      Don't tell me. You like money.

  15. Steven Raith

    Hold the phones, kids.

    I think this announcement may well be true definition of irony.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well, I have this flock of sheep...

    ...so got me a wolf to look after them.

    I guess they'll be safe now.

  17. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

    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.

    1. rm -rf *.*
      Black Helicopters

      Well, if you're Canadian...

      ...then good for you.

      The US of A works pretty closely with its neighbor (sic) up north, so good luck with that.

      I'd advise you to encrypt your data <b><i>before</i></b> their client "encrypts" it for you though, but YMMV...

    2. MrRtd

      So I checked it out, and sync.com says it's Canadian, with a Canadian address, but according to Geotool, the server IP address is in the USA.

      So if you're trying to avoid the prying eyes of the Government of the USA, you are out of luck.

      1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

        Primary website appears to be in the US. In fact, the site hosting the client download appears to be in the US as well. (CDN, I suspect.) The servers the client talks to after install are in Toronto. (I've been watching them all night.)

        1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

          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.

          1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
            Unhappy

            @Trevor_Pott

            "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.

  18. Captain DaFt

    For Sale:

    One hungry fox. Excellent at guarding hen houses.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      Re: For Sale:

      "For sale, one hungry fox. Excellent at guarding hen houses."

      Quit complaining, it's not like any of them escaped, is it?

  19. Nunyabiznes

    hackerz

    So none of you would hire a black/gray hat to test your network security?

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I care about my 'toilet door'. Goodbye, dropbox.

  21. Mitoo Bobsworth
    Thumb Down

    One of the many reasons...

    ...I never bought into cloud storage.

  22. NameTaken

    dropbox in bed with the feds?

    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.

    1. Vociferous

      Re: dropbox in bed with the feds?

      > 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.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. MondoMan

        Re: What did Rice do for DropBox or top people there to land a cushy deal

        She was also provost of Stanford University for many many years; since Stanford founded and nurtures Silicon Valley, that's not a bad link to have on board.

  23. Slef

    date

    Is it still April Fools Day?

  24. Vociferous

    Simmer down, people: she's a lobbyist.

    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.

    1. james 68

      Re: Simmer down, people: she's a lobbyist.

      alternatively they'll use her to get better concessions (read as: money) from government etc for deep access to their hosting facilities.

      its not a one way street and when in doubt the answer is 99% of the time, money.

  25. NormDP

    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.

  26. southpacificpom
    Coat

    Dropped Box

    Wait for Dropbox NSA Edition.

    What?, we already have it!

  27. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    No thanks!

    No Rice please. How about a Kofi though?

    So, Hu you say was the leader of China?

    1. Dieter Haussmann

      Re: No thanks!

      "No Rice please. How about a Kofi ?"

      No, Mr.T would be better.

  28. Psyx

    Godwins.

    n/t

  29. Dieter Haussmann

    Cuckoo in the nest.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Bradley Hardleigh-Hadderchance
      WTF?

      Fox in the Hen House

      Er, do you think Condy reads the Reg?

      <Whack> <Smack> <Crack>

      "I'm sorry Mrs. Rice, I didn't mean iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit. Urghhhhhhhhhh. Splutter. Gurgle."

      </Whack> </Smack> </Crack>

      "Drop him in the box boys"...

  30. Tikimon
    Devil

    Gives it all away in her own words

    "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".

  31. Bradley Hardleigh-Hadderchance
    Boffin

    WTF?

    $date = '01/04/2014' ? $laugh : $cry;

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