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Comment by m52go | Hacker News Reader

Simply removing Condi as a board member doesn't solve anything. The move to make her a board member puts the motivations of the entire Dropbox leadership team in question.

Today, Dropbox hurt its reputation very badly, regardless how this ultimately plays out.

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Agreed. As a cloud service provider, they seem to have forgotten or not cared about the fact that they aren't just selling space, they are selling trust.

And it's such a bizarre move. What's the upside?

They wanted a board member with international experience, as they hope to expand internationally. Including, as TechCrunch put it, to "deal with foreign governments that have blocked its use".

You don't think there's more money in her US Government contacts?

There's money in both places to be made. They're not exclusive.

We know Gaddafi had a crush on her, but does she provide positive PR for international users? Certainly there is a more neutral person who could accomplish the same thing.

Dropbox isn't going to put her name or face on billboards.

Her connections and knowledge of international stuffs is what Dropbox is hoping she'll bring.

Understandable move, but in solving one problem they've simply created another.

What's the upside for any external management appointment ? A large investment, that's what.

Are you saying it makes them more capable of closing a large round? They just closed $350m barely a month ago.

If they're looking for even more funding...I don't even know. The funding game is so screwed up now. Just IPO already and let the public markets enjoy some of the upside.

Connections?

Gravitas. If they want to move into the enterprise and international markets they need to have someone that will give mega-company CEO's a sense of comfort. At that level decisions aren't made based on technology. They're made on personal relationships.

Connections to megacorps.

Especially since dropbox has ALL of your files in the clear. They dedupe then encrypt (or claim to encrypt).

Not only do they have all of your files in the clear, they know every other person using dropbox that has the same files regardless of where they got them. Deduping is also Total Document Tracking.

Remember that another thing the bush admin did was get in bed with bankers.

She surely have goldman sachs and many others in her pocket.

It is a very smart 'hire' just before an IPO. they just overlooked that the internet would not take the war and wiretap part lightly. They should have just gave her tons of shares as a investor and consultant, and not made her position that publicly.

Right. I can't help to think, also, that not long ago Houston was one of several important CEOs who met with Obama over the NSA's warrantless wiretapping.

It's important to look out after your stakeholders, but am really in awe of how they didn't seem to anticipate there would be backlash with this decision and that's what I'd call into question.

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