Dropbox under fire for bringing former wartime minister on board - Times of India ~ Electronic Gadgets

NEW DELHI: Another day and another controversy in the world of technology. Just days after Mozilla CEO was "forced" to resign over his political views, Dropbox on Thursday announced that it was adding Condolezza Rice, a controversial US politician who served as national security advisor and secretary of state under George W Bush government, to its board of directors.

Dropbox is a popular cloud storage provider. It has millions of users.

However, the move has not gone down well and influential bloggers and commentators slammed Dropbox for bringing a "war criminal" on board. Many believe that Rice, along with Bush, was instrumental in pushing the US to the war in Iraq.

"When looking to grow our board, we sought out a leader who could help us expand our global footprint... We're honored to be adding someone as brilliant and accomplished as Dr Rice to our team," wrote Drew Houston, Dropbox founder and CEO, on the company blog.

Citing Rice, Businessweek later said that she would be "helping Dropbox navigate" the privacy issues in the wake of revelations that the National Security Agency was involved in mass surveillance on the web users.

Unfortunately, for Dropbox, which is has to be very careful about privacy concerns because it deals in storing private files of its users, its move came under fire. Sam Biddle, who writes about Silicon Valley culture on Valleywag blog, wrote, "Condoleezza Rice, known for her cameo on 30 Rock and that time she helped sell the case for the Iraq War and torture, has a new line on her resume: the boardroom of Dropbox. She'll help the cloud startup with 'international expansion,' which she sure knows a thing or two about."

Boing Boing, a popular website that covers technology and culture, was even more scathing. "You don't need Mike Judge to remind you how dumb the valley is... Rice joining Dropbox is the insult, not the injury, which is in the firm's DNA: customer privacy as a feature, not a principle," noted the website.

The comments on Twitter were vicious. They not only targeted Dropbox for hiring someone who led the US into what many perceive a futile war but also criticised Rice for ties to a US administration that significantly expanded surveillance on the web at the cost of privacy.

"Disturbing move from Dropbox, who just added Condi Rice — public advocate of warrantless wiretapping — to its board," tweeted Travor Timm, executive director of Freedom of the Press Foundation.

Ed Bott, who writes on Zdnet, called the move "tone-deaf". He wrote, "Adding Condi Rice to the Dropbox board might be the most tone-deaf move by a big Silicon Valley company in as long as I can remember."

The sentiment was shared by Miguel de Icaza, co-founder of Xamarin. "Condoleeza Rice to join Dropbox board? Bold move NSA! Err, I mean bold move Dropbox," he tweeted.

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