4 ms·

The clear point of this is not to protect from NSA/US Courts but to minimise tax. I'm not sure why they never setup out of Ireland in the first place, every oth

by stirlo 11y ago

The clear point of this is not to protect from NSA/US Courts but to minimise tax. I'm not sure why they never setup out of Ireland in the first place, every other US company with international revenues has already. In addition unless Microsoft wins its appeal US courts have ruled that a US company eg: Dropbox can be forced to provide any data they have even if it is outside the US

xnull2guest 11y ago
Right. I mean, Condolezza Rice is on the board of Dropbox. If there's a company that is going to have pressure from shareholders to make data available to the government it's going to be Dropbox.
- mojuba 11y ago
  If she doesn't work for the govt. anymore why would she do that?
  - ProAm 11y ago
    Money,
    - bigiain 11y ago
      I doubt it - I'm reasonably sure 50% less or 1000% more money wouldn't make a substantial difference to her or her families way of life - she'd notice, but mostly in a "using dollars to keep score" kind of way. I'd suggest "ideology" is a much more powerful motivator here.
  - PhasmaFelis 11y ago
    Why wouldn't she do it? She's on record as saying that the government has the right to eavesdrop on any American citizen for any reason without a warrant. (http://www.drop-dropbox.com/surveillance.html http://www.drop-dropbox.com/surveillance.html) I haven't heard anything to suggest that she's changed her mind about that. If she practices what she preaches, there's no reason to think she would support attempts to make Dropbox secure against government surveillance. (When she joined Dropbox, there was a huge fooforaw over whether her actions under Bush during the Iraq War constituted war crimes. Honestly I felt like that was a red herring in this particular case--regardless of your feelings the war, it should be obvious that you don't want even partial control of your private documents going to a person who thinks that the government should be allowed to read your private documents.)
  - patmcguire 11y ago
    Shared outlook, shared values with the government side. I don't generally believe in conspiracies, but a board member wouldn't need to be involved in one for it to make a major difference, they'd just have to be more sympathetic to the government's case than the next person.
  - xnull2guest 11y ago
    Well, you could say the same thing about Clinton and the Clinton emails or ex military generals and their (mostly paid) appearances in the media.
arfliw 11y ago
>every other US company with international revenues has already That's a bit of an overstatement. I think what you mean is every huge tech company or something along those lines. And I doubt it is even true for every member of that cohort. Though you are of course correct that it is common.
dingaling 11y ago
I'm sure they're intending to gain favorable financial benefits but moving the actual data to Ireland isn't necessary for that. There are plenty of companies registered in Ireland which do not have a physical presence here. There is no test of what proportion of business activity occurs in Ireland. For example Norwegian Airlines has something like a dozen " brass plaque" companies registered to a solicitor's address in Dublin but the only time their 787s touch Irish soil is on their delivery flight, to receive their EI- registration

by stirlo 11y ago

xnull2guest 11y ago

Right. I mean, Condolezza Rice is on the board of Dropbox. If there's a company that is going to have pressure from shareholders to make data available to the government it's going to be Dropbox.

mojuba 11y ago
If she doesn't work for the govt. anymore why would she do that?
- ProAm 11y ago
  Money,
  - bigiain 11y ago
    I doubt it - I'm reasonably sure 50% less or 1000% more money wouldn't make a substantial difference to her or her families way of life - she'd notice, but mostly in a "using dollars to keep score" kind of way. I'd suggest "ideology" is a much more powerful motivator here.
- PhasmaFelis 11y ago
  Why wouldn't she do it? She's on record as saying that the government has the right to eavesdrop on any American citizen for any reason without a warrant. (http://www.drop-dropbox.com/surveillance.html http://www.drop-dropbox.com/surveillance.html) I haven't heard anything to suggest that she's changed her mind about that. If she practices what she preaches, there's no reason to think she would support attempts to make Dropbox secure against government surveillance. (When she joined Dropbox, there was a huge fooforaw over whether her actions under Bush during the Iraq War constituted war crimes. Honestly I felt like that was a red herring in this particular case--regardless of your feelings the war, it should be obvious that you don't want even partial control of your private documents going to a person who thinks that the government should be allowed to read your private documents.)
- patmcguire 11y ago
  Shared outlook, shared values with the government side. I don't generally believe in conspiracies, but a board member wouldn't need to be involved in one for it to make a major difference, they'd just have to be more sympathetic to the government's case than the next person.
- xnull2guest 11y ago
  Well, you could say the same thing about Clinton and the Clinton emails or ex military generals and their (mostly paid) appearances in the media.

arfliw 11y ago

>every other US company with international revenues has already That's a bit of an overstatement. I think what you mean is every huge tech company or something along those lines. And I doubt it is even true for every member of that cohort. Though you are of course correct that it is common.

dingaling 11y ago

I'm sure they're intending to gain favorable financial benefits but moving the actual data to Ireland isn't necessary for that. There are plenty of companies registered in Ireland which do not have a physical presence here. There is no test of what proportion of business activity occurs in Ireland. For example Norwegian Airlines has something like a dozen " brass plaque" companies registered to a solicitor's address in Dublin but the only time their 787s touch Irish soil is on their delivery flight, to receive their EI- registration