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Dropbox Moves Accounts Outside North America To Ireland

Posted by timothy on from the which-is-technically-outside-of-north-america dept.

monkeyzoo writes: Similar to a previous announcement by Twitter, Dropbox has changed its Terms of Service for users outside of North America (USA/Canada/Mexico) such that services will now be provided out of Ireland. Will other companies follow this trend and leave the USA (and the jurisdiction of the NSA)? Note, the announcement states that North American users are not able to opt into the Irish Terms of Service.

12 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. That's not a security move by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They're after the double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich.

    It's about money. Not "our valued customer's security" or other bullshit.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:That's not a security move by Muros · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They're after the double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich.

      It's about money. Not "our valued customer's security" or other bullshit.

      They don't need servers here to funnel profits through the country, they can do that easily enough with dodgy licensing subsidiaries and some accounting sleight of hand in an office of 2 people.

    2. Re:That's not a security move by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's as much about PR as anything. Maybe it's actually about telling the NSA et al to piss off.

      But sooner or later, a nice government official will show up and say "now gimme".

      I'm no sure there really is a way to take data outside of jurisdictions now. Courts seem to think they aren't constrained in their decisions, any more ... and all the governments are trading the data.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    3. Re:That's not a security move by fustakrakich · · Score: 4, Insightful

      thanks government goons. you ruined one of mankind's BEST achievements in all of earth's history.

      Mankind's BEST achievement in all of earth's history are the washer and dryer (and maybe the horseless carriage), and mine work just fine, thanks. The internet is a giant billboard.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    4. Re:That's not a security move by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 3, Funny

      the UK, practically the USs 52nd state

      Just curious - what's the US's 51st State?

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    5. Re:That's not a security move by hjf · · Score: 4, Informative

      Also it FUCKS user experience.
      Facebook is pulling the same retard move. I'm in Latin America. There are NO fiber links between Latin America and Europe, let alone Ireland. All my traffic is relayed to the US. What used to be a 200ms hop with a fat multi-Gbps link, is now over 1000ms with a much, MUCH smaller link.

      Facebook has become unusable. Load times are now in excess of 30 seconds. Packet loss seems awful. Images don't load, the page is botched from missing CSS bits.

      The NSA is still spying on me, but now I get a dial-up experience thanks to this crap.

  2. False sense of security? by JustNiz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It seems clear from the way that Juilian Assange is being fucked over by the UK and Sweden on behalf of the US, that the US gov already has their hand far enough up the arse of significant western countries to make them their puppet.

    What makes anyone seriously think that Irish won't also just bend over for the NSA as readily?

  3. well... by zippo01 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is only news if you think the NSA still couldn't easily gain access....

  4. It's not the NSA they're fleeing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The NSA knows no boundaries and arguably has MORE reach outside the USA.
    Companies are fleeing the US courts, following the ruling that a company with offices in the USA (i.e. Microsoft) can be compelled to produce digital evidence stored outside the USA.

  5. NSA jurisdiction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    and the jurisdiction of the NSA

    Actually, the rest of the world is the jurisdiction of the NSA. It's mission is to gather signals intelligence from foreign countries. If there is a jurisdiction that is off-limits to the NSA, its the US. That's why recently a US Appellate Court ruled that the NSA's wholesale spying on US citizens' phone communications is illegal. Besides, there's the British GCHQ that will be glad to spy on Dropbox and share what it gathers with the other Five-Eyes members.

    What this does for Dropbox is provide a tax haven for it, and to make it difficult for US law enforcement to serve warrants to produce evidence for Dropbox's users it suspects of criminal actions like pedophiles, copyright fraudsters, drug traffickers, etc.

  6. not outside the jurisdiction of the NSA by ron_ivi · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That's not a security move

    It's also not outside the jurisdiction of the NSA.

    Recall that the NSA is a DoD sub-agency --- so is quite restriced from spying on US Citizens inside the US. However DoD intel agencies are much more free to spy on international -- in fact, it's their main job.

    It seems to me this moves it INSIDE the jurisdiction of the NSA.

    1. Re:not outside the jurisdiction of the NSA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This has nothing to do with the NSA (the NSA will get anything they want - legally or not, if you think otherwise you are pathetic).

      This has to do with the legal bounds of the American court. If the service provider is stationned outside America and has local TOS, then it is outside the jurisdiction of the court. You cannot demand information that can be used in American civil cases. The NSA information can not be used in those cases unless they can prove it is legally handed to them.