[tylerkahn]

How about:

1. Rice wasn't brought on for anything that has to do with data privacy and thus her views on data privacy are irrelevant.

2. Rice doesn't have an uncontrollable compulsion to send people's data to the NSA and thus it's unlikely she'll be sneaking off to install backdoors.

[mikeash]

Both of those would mean that Rice's appointment to Dropbox's board is no big deal, but neither one is compatible with their statement that she "fully supports our commitments".

[tylerkahn]

It is a big deal, just not from your perspective because you're solely focused on data privacy.

The statement is meant to address the data privacy concerns raised about her appointment. This doesn't mean the concerns are valid, just that they exist and Dropbox is aware of them. The alternative would be to not address the concerns and look completely out of touch with or intentionally ignoring the frenzy of the past few days.

[mikeash]

I have no idea how that's supposed to relate to my statement.

I'm just saying that their statement (not the appointment, but what they said right here) is completely at odds with the notion that they care about the privacy of their users.

That's all I'm saying. I'm not focused on data privacy, I'm merely noting that this statement appears to either contradict the facts at hand or be an implicit admission that they don't care about data privacy.

[tylerkahn]

Oh ok. I think you're saying that because you think that Rice believes [something bad with respect to data privacy], by Dropbox saying that she's fully supportive of their commitments Dropbox must also believe in [something bad with respect to data privacy].

So I guess that comes down to what Rice's exact views are.

Personally, I doubt she's completely against the idea of data privacy in all cases and thus it's possible that Dropbox's existing views and policies on data privacy are compatible with hers.

And anyway, I doubt that Dropbox could or would stop responding to FISA requests or warrants regardless of who's on the board considering that they operate in the US.

[mikeash]

Rice's exact views don't seem too difficult to figure out. She spoke publicly in favor of warrantless surveillance of US citizens. It's possible that she's subsequently changed her mind, which is why I included that possibility as point #1 above.

FISA requests and warrants aren't really at issue here. Warrants are exactly how this stuff is supposed to be done. FISA requests are pretty much just an odd form of warrant, and any opposition to them comes down to thinking they shouldn't be issued, not that they shouldn't be obeyed. The issue at hand is warrantless surveillance. Does Dropbox hand over user data to the government without a warrant? If not, given that Rice is in favor of such things and Dropbox says she fully supports their commitments, there is a contradiction somewhere.