4 ms·

I'm looking at this report with a very skeptical eye; I moved away from Dropbox after they brought Condoleezza Rice of all people on to their board of directors

I'm looking at this report with a very skeptical eye; I moved away from Dropbox after they brought Condoleezza Rice of all people on to their board of directors to oversee privacy issues. But it seems pretty comprehensive. It's interesting that West Virginia is the only state that didn't receive any account information requests. Hey everyone, if you want to dodge the feds, move to rural Appalachia! I also find it hilarious that they got a half-dozen requests issued to the wrong company. Who do you think they were supposed to go to? My money's on Box. And it is complete bullshit that they can only give a range of '0-249' for national security requests. But the big NSL case is still grinding through the 9th circuit court of appeals, right? Anyways, my biggest concern is with the phrase, "Non-content provided." This feels like a similar weasel word to "it's only metadata," and it reeks of parallel construction to me. It's odd that they provided "non-content" for 96% of subpoenas which didn't refer to nonexistent accounts, but provided actual content for 0% of subpoenas. I'd like them to go into more detail about why that is. If they're constantly resisting requests to provide full content, then good on them. But they don't go into any detail.

news_to_me 10y ago
Serious question, what was the big deal about hiring Condi Rice? I'm not saying I condone her political career, but is there some obvious link that would indicate that she's operating at Dropbox to the detriment of its users?
- leggomylibro 10y ago
  There's no huge deal, I just see the way that companies fill key positions as signals of their intentions. I don't think that she's working with the CIA to spy on all of the company's users or anything, but I do think that her past actions show a history of complete disregard for individual privacy. So when the company hired her on their board to deal with issues of privacy, I read it as a signal that they are unwilling to meaningfully stand up for their users' privacy, and they're probably not adverse to quietly compromising it for a quick buck. I was already not hugely impressed by the service, so I just switched to a more secure cloud backup provider that costs about the same. I guess it was more the straw that broke the camel's back.
seanieb 10y ago
> "I'm looking at this report with a very skeptical eye; I moved away from Dropbox after they brought Condoleezza Rice of all people on to their board of directors to oversee privacy issues." She's on the board, it has absolutely nothing to do with the day to day of this sort of thing. If you want to get a good idea of how any company handles your data look at it's legal team, past and present. And Dropbox's legal team has an amazing record of fighting for users privacy and constitutional rights. (full disclosure I am an ex-employee of Dropbox)

news_to_me 10y ago

Serious question, what was the big deal about hiring Condi Rice? I'm not saying I condone her political career, but is there some obvious link that would indicate that she's operating at Dropbox to the detriment of its users?

leggomylibro 10y ago
There's no huge deal, I just see the way that companies fill key positions as signals of their intentions. I don't think that she's working with the CIA to spy on all of the company's users or anything, but I do think that her past actions show a history of complete disregard for individual privacy. So when the company hired her on their board to deal with issues of privacy, I read it as a signal that they are unwilling to meaningfully stand up for their users' privacy, and they're probably not adverse to quietly compromising it for a quick buck. I was already not hugely impressed by the service, so I just switched to a more secure cloud backup provider that costs about the same. I guess it was more the straw that broke the camel's back.

seanieb 10y ago

> "I'm looking at this report with a very skeptical eye; I moved away from Dropbox after they brought Condoleezza Rice of all people on to their board of directors to oversee privacy issues." She's on the board, it has absolutely nothing to do with the day to day of this sort of thing. If you want to get a good idea of how any company handles your data look at it's legal team, past and present. And Dropbox's legal team has an amazing record of fighting for users privacy and constitutional rights. (full disclosure I am an ex-employee of Dropbox)