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Sooo, will we be seeing a repeat of the Eich-like public outcry? Though I may understand the business rationale for this hire, I certainly wont trust founders,
by vdaniuk 13y ago
Sooo, will we be seeing a repeat of the Eich-like public outcry?
Though I may understand the business rationale for this hire, I certainly wont trust founders, board or anyone else at Dropbox who is OK working with a person that is partially responsible for deaths of thousands(arguably hundreds of thousands) people in the Iraq war based on false premises about "WMD".
Oh, and we shouldn't forget about her role in "enhanced interrogation techniques", too.
EDIT: Thinking a little more about this I will be cancelling my Dropbox subscription.
EDIT2: Yes, we are seeing an outcry. I am incredibly happy that coolness factor in tech is now more connected to ethical behavior of its top management and board members.
- valarauca1 13y agoYour forgetting she's not only on the record supporting anonymous bulk data collection, AND warrentless wiretapping. She was a key figure of the administration that created such legislation to start with.
- vdaniuk 13y agoOh, right, forgot about that. What the fuck is going at Dropbox? How did they even come to the conclusion that this is a good idea? I don't understand the business rationale anymore for Dropbox anymore.
- valarauca1 13y agoWell she is a prominent figure in America. Just not for a lot of good reasons. The bet is likely that future government business she could bring is larger then the major exodus of people who supported them early on.
- vdaniuk 13y agoYeah, that may be their calculation. I don't think this will sit well with german users or french users, for example though. Could really hurt their international b2c business.
- valarauca1 13y agoI don't see how it'll sit well with anyone in the tech community, other then people who prioritize sexual equality above data integrity. The problem isn't her race, or her sex. Its her opinions, and political past. Its very damning to the company and their goals.
- fnordfnordfnord 13y ago>The bet is likely that future government business she could bring is larger then the major exodus of people who supported them early on. Well good for them and their stakeholders!
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- JanezStupar 13y agoShe is colored, she is a woman and she is in league with the demographic techies have hard time reaching out to (conservatives). As politically correct and pro equal opportunity crowd as HN should be able to grok that.
- cryoshon 13y agoAn outside explanation is that political and corporate powers tend to cross-pollinate and operate with revolving doors. Think of what doors have opened for Dropbox now that they've got Condi. Any door that Condi could open (which is quite a few) could now be opened by them.
- jbooth 13y agoHey, it's not like they're storing people's data or anything. Privacy just shouldn't be that relevant to them.
- alttab 13y agoSounds like Drew has reached the big leagues.
- Karunamon 13y agoDamn.. I'd forgotten about that. I'll definitely consider hosting my truecrypt volume elsewhere once my two years of free 50gb is up..
- valarauca1 13y agoBTsync is free as in beer, its a bit better. Mega offers 50GB of sync for free. Both are -okay-, if you have a spare server owncloud exists.
- mcintyre1994 13y agoThat seems directly counter to the goal of her helping them expand internationally. The person behind that legislation doesn't seem like the person who'd talk China etc. into opening up.
- valarauca1 13y agoAlso there is no way the person who helped destroy relations with the EU will help build business in the EU.
- zimpenfish 13y agoI'm certainly thinking about cancelling mine. Will give them a few days to put out a rationale first.
- bambax 13y agoI feel just like you but rely on Dropbox so much. What serious alternatives are they? (preferably, non-US-based?)
- vdaniuk 13y agoI will be looking into personal open-source clouds, like http://owncloud.org/ http://owncloud.org/ hosted at DO Amsterdam location.
- mhurron 13y agoI know of box.com, but that's US based. I would also like to hear of alternatives.
- kmfrk 13y agoTheir S-1 filing doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. They literally wrote under "Risk Factor": We have a history of cumulative losses, and we do not expect to be profitable for the foreseeable future. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1372612/000119312514112417/d642425ds1.htm#toc642425_2 http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1372612/0001193125141...
- mhurron 13y agoHow is that any different than most SV startups? Not making money seems to be SOP. Besides, with cloud storage, you should plan for and expect that they could disappear tomorrow. That goes for every provider.
- abrowne 13y agoI've been looking at MEO Cloud[1]. It's by Sapo.pt, a part of Portugal Telecom. I first saw it recommended by Rui Carmo of Tao of Mac[2], who I've generally thought offers good advice. (He also is Portuguese...) And, they offer a Linux download unlike most other alternatives. [1]: https://meocloud.pt/ https://meocloud.pt/ [2]: http://the.taoofmac.com/ http://the.taoofmac.com/ [Edited for clarity and fixed links.]
- cookiecaper 13y agoOh please. Are we really going to do this to every normal person who tries to enter the tech industry? "Excuse me, sir/madam, you were a Republican recently. Please publicly disavow all past actions, thoughts, beliefs, and interests, donate to the HRC three times, throw salt over your shoulder five times, and take out an Obamacare-Approved® Health Insurance Policy(TM) before you even think about helping these pimply-faced 25-year-olds run their companies." Eich was worse just because of his background and the immense debt that we all owe to him, and that we betrayed him because we're idiots, but you guys really need to get it together.
- vdaniuk 13y agoWTF? She is not a "normal person" by a long shot. She is arguably a war criminal, a proponent of dragnet surveillance and was partial to implementation of torture, oh sorry, "enhanced interrogation".
- doktrin 13y agoComparing Eich and Rice is misleading. By any sensible rationale, their "past actions", both positive and negative, aren't in the same ballpark, zip code or measurement scale.
- mhurron 13y agoYour right, people should stop having personal opinions and do what they're told.
- etfb 13y agoShe's a war criminal. That's enough reason to put up with the inconvenience of switching to a different cloud storage solution, I think.
- AnkhMorporkian 13y agoInnocent until proven guilty, as long as you didn't work for the government?
- 13y ago
- edgarallenbro 13y agoNope. At this point, people have either forgotten about Iraq or just come to accept it. The gay marriage issue is a current one. It's a fight that's being fought right now. Protesting someone who is against gay rights has an actual impact in today's politics. Protesting against someone who supported going into Iraq over 10 years ago does not. Yes, there will be public outcry, because many people view her as a deceiver, and others will think she is a tool of the NSA. But the outcry will not be the same as it was for Eich.
- muriithi 13y agoSince this is HN is it possible to limit ourselves to how CR will help Dropbox to market itself in countries where governments are hostile? Does anyone know how Rice’s firm RiceHadleyGates would help DropBox do that? I would assume that her elevation from consultant to board member means that she has been tried and tested.
- JabavuAdams 13y agoWhy would it help? ELI5 it for me. American influence is at a low ebb, and adding figures from a disgraced and frankly laughing-stock administration seems a horrible PR move. Will this help with domestic US government contracts?
- k-mcgrady 13y agoI am also considering cancelling my Dropbox account. However several of my clients use it to share designs with me making that tricky. Can you suggest anyway around this other than asking the clients to use Google Drive/Box instead?
- vdaniuk 13y agoI think there is no drop-in solution. Truecrypt paired with owncloud.org hosted on DO may work. Spideroak seems good too.