The company has no plans to let Rice alter Dropbox's privacy and security standards

Apr 12, 2014 18:11 GMT  ·  By

Dropbox named Condoleezza Rice as a member of its board of directors earlier this week and the Internet is not taking the news well, demanding that she be removed given her previous activity in the US government and her stance on warrantless phone tapping.

The company has reacted relatively quick to the scandal and says that nothing will change at Dropbox as far as the company’s privacy views go, even if Condoleezza Rice is a board member or not.

“There’s nothing more important to us than keeping your stuff 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,” reads a blog post signed by Drew Houston, the company’s founder and CEO.

In fact, he says, Rice’s appointment will not change anything about how Dropbox views privacy. “Our commitment to your rights and your privacy is at the heart of every decision we make,” Houston tries to alleviate the users’ fears.

The company did unveil, however, that it will use Rice’s experience and insight into international markets to help expand in new areas. This type of information is needed so Dropbox can continue to help new users and to defend their rights.

Yesterday, a day after the announcement about Rice’s appointment was made a site called “Drop Dropbox” showed up online, demanding the decision to be reversed.

The site presents a lengthy list of reasons, including her involvement in starting the Iraq war and in the torture programs launched by the Bush Administration. Her support for warrantless wiretaps seems to have been the drop that filled the glass, especially given the current concern with the NSA intruding on everyone’s private lives.

Knowing that not only does Rice support warrantless surveillance, but also that she approved several wiretaps on members of the United Nations’ Security Council are particularly concerning for users.

The site urges users to ask Houston to fire Rice or else they’ll stop using Dropbox and move on to competitive services, such as Box, Google Drive, One Drive and more.

The hashtag #DropDropbox quickly became a hit on Twitter and thousands of people have used it to complain about Condoleezza Rice.

Whether Dropbox will reconsider its decision if the pressure continues remains to be seen, but Houston has made it rather clear that Rice won’t have any influence on any decisions regarding the privacy standards at Dropbox.