that the board failed to stop this (or was bypassed) is telling, but this doesn't seem like a failure of the corporate governance model or anything. money is basically essential to a corporation; engineering staff shouldn't be on the level of C suite, despite what many here would have you believe
Although I think the person is getting too much grief for this, I have to say that if a CFO is allowed to make decisions in an area where he lacks understanding, simply because his title starts with a "C", that counts as a failure of the governance model.
"Sadly" because in this instance, it appears there's a CFO in power who's championing selling user's privacy out. Not a comment of whether or not a CFO in general has more influence than engineering (or other) staff, but that an ethically challenged CFO is potentially a toxic influence to a company culture and direction.
that the board failed to stop this (or was bypassed) is telling, but this doesn't seem like a failure of the corporate governance model or anything. money is basically essential to a corporation; engineering staff shouldn't be on the level of C suite, despite what many here would have you believe