Dropbox’s appointment of ex-US Secretary of State Dr Condoleezza Rice to its board of directors has sparked criticism from protesters concerning her alleged involvement in massive internet surveillance during her term in office.
Protests on social media portrayed Rice as implicit in instances of widespread wiretapping on US citizens, moving opponents to set up a website entitled ‘Drop Dropbox’, which described the appointment as ‘deeply disturbing’ and called on individuals to switch to rival services if the cloud storage firm doesn’t ‘drop’ Rice.
"Choosing Condoleezza Rice for Dropbox’s Board is problematic on a number of deeper levels, and invites serious concerns about Drew Houston and the senior leadership at Dropbox’s commitment to freedom, openness, and ethics," the site noted.
"When a company quite literally has access to all of your data, ethics become more than a fun thought experiment."
In response to protests, Dropbox co-founder Drew Houston said that there’s nothing more important to the company than keeping its data safe and secure.
"It’s why we’ve been fighting for transparency and government surveillance reform, and why we’ve been vocal and public with our principles and values," Houston said.
"We should have been clearer that none of this is going to change with Dr. Rice’s appointment to our Board.
"Our commitment to your rights and your privacy is at the heart of every decision we make, and this will continue."
Dropbox appointed Rice to its Board on April 9 in an event which was accompanied with launch of new applications aimed at portraying its expanding vision as it nears a highly-anticipated IPO.
