Dropbox Could Have One of 2017’s Most Interesting IPOs • Hacker News Board

Re: Dropbox Could Have One of 2017’s Most Interesting IPOs

#111

Post by drewrv » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 7:02 AM UTC

edanm wrote: post #107

new299 wrote: post #99

I'm slightly shocked that tech-types who in general seem to be against mass state sponsored surveillance continue to support Dropbox. Dropbox appointed Condoleezza Rice to their board. Rice supports warrentless surveillance [1]. They've made no moves to encrypt data service side. I hope their IPO fails spectacularly so that support of warrentless surveillance does not become the norm in tech companies. [1] Condoleezz…

I think most people recognize that they don't necessarily agree with everyone, especially when it comes to politics, and that refusing to work with people because you dislike their politics is, in general, not a smart thing to do. Not to mention not supporting companies because one of their board members takes a position you dislike on an issue.

I'm happy to work with people whom I disagree with politically. But if you're concerned about privacy, giving all your files unencrypted to a company that is uninterested in your privacy (as demonstrated by their board) is just bonkers.

Re: Dropbox Could Have One of 2017’s Most Interesting IPOs

#112

Post by amelius » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 7:05 AM UTC

jeff_tyrrill wrote: post #106

amelius wrote: post #43

I wonder why we haven't seen good open-source imitations of Dropbox yet, and why there isn't a good open protocol for file sharing. The last such protocol I've heard of is WebDAV, but it seemed to have been neglected by OS implementers (Apple's implementation was particularly bad). Also WebDAV was missing many modern features.

The value that Dropbox provides isn't the sharing, nor the protocol - it's the failure-free merging algorithm (I intentionally said "merging" not "syncing"). The magic is what happens locally - not on the network.

Interesting. Do they also merge file formats like .DOC and .PSD?

Re: Dropbox Could Have One of 2017’s Most Interesting IPOs

#113

Post by new299 » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 7:12 AM UTC

ternaryoperator wrote: post #108

new299 wrote: post #99

I'm slightly shocked that tech-types who in general seem to be against mass state sponsored surveillance continue to support Dropbox. Dropbox appointed Condoleezza Rice to their board. Rice supports warrentless surveillance [1]. They've made no moves to encrypt data service side. I hope their IPO fails spectacularly so that support of warrentless surveillance does not become the norm in tech companies. [1] Condoleezz…

> they've made no moves to encrypt data service side From their website[0]: "Dropbox file data is stored in discrete file blocks that are fragmented and encrypted using 256-bit AES." [0] https://www.dropbox.com/security

It's very clear from that page that the data is sometimes transmitted unencrypted.

It's also clear that if it's encrypted server-side it's encrypted with a key known to dropbox (which in my opinion makes the encryption meaningless).

So, technically it's possible that my statement was slightly misleading. It may be encrypted.

But the conclusion is, they have access to all your data. It would be available under warrentless surveillance programs, or potentially to attackers in general.

That doesn't seem acceptable to me.

Re: Dropbox Could Have One of 2017’s Most Interesting IPOs

#114

Post by new299 » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 7:19 AM UTC

edanm wrote: post #107

new299 wrote: post #99

I'm slightly shocked that tech-types who in general seem to be against mass state sponsored surveillance continue to support Dropbox. Dropbox appointed Condoleezza Rice to their board. Rice supports warrentless surveillance [1]. They've made no moves to encrypt data service side. I hope their IPO fails spectacularly so that support of warrentless surveillance does not become the norm in tech companies. [1] Condoleezz…

I think most people recognize that they don't necessarily agree with everyone, especially when it comes to politics, and that refusing to work with people because you dislike their politics is, in general, not a smart thing to do. Not to mention not supporting companies because one of their board members takes a position you dislike on an issue.

In generally, absolutely.

But it's quite clear that Rice's value to Dropbox is based around her background in politics.

And in particular, her background in politics is one that is diametrically opposed to what Dropbox should be providing its users. A secure, private storage service.

Re: Dropbox Could Have One of 2017’s Most Interesting IPOs

#115

Post by marcusr » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 7:20 AM UTC

sjg007 wrote: post #96

wil421 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OneDrive does this and can sync your camera roll. I use it to sync iPhone photos to my desktop and back. You do need to open the app to sync.

The other nice feature would be a public dropbox that you could give people special links or codes to upload to.

That's sort of exists with the file requests feature.

Re: Dropbox Could Have One of 2017’s Most Interesting IPOs

#116

Post by automatwon » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 7:36 AM UTC

My primary use case for Dropbox, actually, is getting videos onto my iPhone. You can't simply drag and drop a video file into the phone as a mass storage device. With ITunes, the sync feature purportedly sync the video to the device, and consumes space accordingly, but there's no way to access the video on the device. It's actually way faster for me to upload a video to Dropbox from my computer, and download the video on the Dropbox app into my photos. The video quality is excellent, too!

Re: Dropbox Could Have One of 2017’s Most Interesting IPOs

#117

Post by douche » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 7:40 AM UTC

automatwon wrote: post #116

My primary use case for Dropbox, actually, is getting videos onto my iPhone. You can't simply drag and drop a video file into the phone as a mass storage device. With ITunes, the sync feature purportedly sync the video to the device, and consumes space accordingly, but there's no way to access the video on the device. It's actually way faster for me to upload a video to Dropbox from my computer, and download the vide…

What a magnificent Goldbergian solution! The needless complexity of simple tasks is sometimes breathtaking.

Re: Dropbox Could Have One of 2017’s Most Interesting IPOs

#118

Post by puranjay » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 7:54 AM UTC

douche wrote: post #117

automatwon wrote: post #116

My primary use case for Dropbox, actually, is getting videos onto my iPhone. You can't simply drag and drop a video file into the phone as a mass storage device. With ITunes, the sync feature purportedly sync the video to the device, and consumes space accordingly, but there's no way to access the video on the device. It's actually way faster for me to upload a video to Dropbox from my computer, and download the vide…

What a magnificent Goldbergian solution! The needless complexity of simple tasks is sometimes breathtaking.

This is one reason why I sold my iPad. I just couldn't figure out its cloud storage system.

Android makes it so much easier - just install a file manager and you're good to go.

Re: Dropbox Could Have One of 2017’s Most Interesting IPOs

#119

Post by sdrinf » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 8:19 AM UTC

raiyu wrote: post #38

The fact that Dropbox's revenue is well above Box's if the rumors in the article are true is a great positive sign. As is being cash flow positive which would indicate that if they are burning cash it isn't at the rate of 2x revenue that Box has been a victim of. However, the vision they are selling will not come to pass. That of them being a collaborative platform. Google docs, slack, and a myriad of other tools hav…

| In the meantime Dropbox's core offering of syncing and sharing files seamlessly as well as providing more security minded options for businesses is something that no one else has quite gotten right.

There is absolutely no mention whatsoever neither in the article, nor in your analysis above about Owncloud.

Owncloud (or any OSS fork thereof) is an existential threat to Dropbox's core offering: while the consumer side is not yet price-competative, it can already be one-click deployed by many VPS providers. And the business case for hosting mission-critical data onsite, or at least own leased equipment & encryption is strong, and enjoys economies of scale.

Re: Dropbox Could Have One of 2017’s Most Interesting IPOs

#120

Post by rtpg » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 8:29 AM UTC

sdrinf wrote: post #119

raiyu wrote: post #38

The fact that Dropbox's revenue is well above Box's if the rumors in the article are true is a great positive sign. As is being cash flow positive which would indicate that if they are burning cash it isn't at the rate of 2x revenue that Box has been a victim of. However, the vision they are selling will not come to pass. That of them being a collaborative platform. Google docs, slack, and a myriad of other tools hav…

| In the meantime Dropbox's core offering of syncing and sharing files seamlessly as well as providing more security minded options for businesses is something that no one else has quite gotten right. There is absolutely no mention whatsoever neither in the article, nor in your analysis above about Owncloud. Owncloud (or any OSS fork thereof) is an existential threat to Dropbox's core offering: while the consumer sid…

though things like Owncloud help make it easier for self hosting, many enterprises will still prefer to opt for something like Dropbox because Operations are hard!

Why does anyone use hosted travis CI despite being able to run it ourselves? Why do people use google apps instead of hosting their own mail servers? Because instead of having your employees do something they're not necessarily good at, you will pay experts to do something they are (supposedly) good at for a fraction of the price.