Condoleezza Rice Joins Dropbox’s Board

... I imagine they want an "in" with defense/govt contracts and who better than someone who knows how to get government money spent.

Regardless, if you feel or have felt your data was safe from prying eyes on dropbox-- after this I'd go somewhere else before that no longer holds true...

I imagine a conversation like, "oh yeah, we'll use Dropbox, we've got $150 million no bid contract ready... but we're going to need something hooked up at your data center. For reasons of national security we cannot tell you what it is or what it's doing..."

... though I suppose in general, if you thought data was safe in the cloud you're already lost.

That seems like a pretty weak reason for hiring her on it's own. Would make more sense to hire her on the grounds of having some clout in Washington so your file sharing service doesn't end up doing a "Megaupload"

On another note, given her former role in government as national security advisor, this might raise eyebrows regarding domestic spying and how that affects any privacy that Dropbox claims to provide.

Then again, I have no doubt that they already considered these things, and chose her anyway. So maybe she is the right person for the job.

If you are a person who still trusts these power players; I would sincerely love to know why...

Nor am I sure why they would do this other than they like to suck up famous people... Guido Van Rossum for instance.

Surely there are less controversial figures that have an intimate knowledge of international relations and less associated baggage. They probably come at a better price too.